0 comments
Google has finally seen the end to a lawsuit filed way back in 2020 and a trial that began in 2023. The Department of Justice alleged that Google held a monopoly over the search and advertising market, but it’s gotten away with a slap on the wrist.
After years of legal foreplay, a US judge has finally ruled on whether Google’s stranglehold on search is technically unfair or just annoyingly effective. The result? Some tweaks, a few stern words, and absolutely no structural changes to the company that’s essentially indexed our lives for more than 25 years.
Having been reluctantly dragged into legal proceedings in 2020 by the Department of Justice and 11 state attorney generals, Alphabet executives have sweated over the possibility of harsh sanctions intended to diminish Google’s popularity and visibility.
In reality, however, it’s pretty much business as usual after the knocking of the mallet, and Google’s stock has actually jumped 8% overnight, as investors jubilantly celebrate getting off scot-free.
The crux of the lawsuit was that Google had consistently shown anti-competitive behaviour, consolidating its monopoly on the search engine business by flexing its immense resources and wealth to strategically oust rivals.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was Google’s partnership with Apple, in which the former paid tens-of-billions every year to remain as the default search engine across iPhone and Safari.
Five years on, it’s this type of exclusive deal that is now off the table, kind of. Google can still pay Apple and other tech firms to feature its search — it just can’t demand exclusivity, which sounds a lot like renting a billboard next to every road and insisting it’s just good marketing.
