Syed Imran Haider 
On Monday, a ruling from a US federal judge declared that there were two market areas where Google has held a monopoly illegally. These are text advertising and search.
It was in 2020 that the US Justice Department had filed the landmark case against the search engine giant.
It alleged that Google managed to retain its share of the general search market through a feedback loop. And, by establishing strong barriers of entry to sustain its dominance.
The Ruling
As per the court’s ruling, Google is in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, under which monopolies are illegal.
This decision is the first anti-monopoly ruling to have been issued against a tech firm in decades.
Judge Amit Mehta, who hails from the US District Court for the District of Columbia, issued the ruling. He said that Google had acted as a monopolist to maintain its own monopoly in the market.
In 2020, it was not only the Department of Justice that had decided to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
A bipartisan group of attorney generals belonging to 38 territories and states had also done the same.
They were led by Nebraska and Colorado. However, all the lawsuits had been merged for the purpose of pretrial, including the discovery of evidence.
The Reaction
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the court’s decision was a historic victory for the American people.
In a statement, he said that no matter how big or influential a company is, it cannot be above the law. He asserted that the Justice Department would continue to enforce the antitrust laws vigorously.
In the ruling, the court focused on the exclusive search arrangement that Google had made for Android devices, as well as on the iPad and iPhones of Apple Inc.
The court asserted that this helped Google in strengthening its dominance in the search markets and was a sign of anticompetitive behavior.
According to the court, the general search services are applicable to Google’s core search engine, where Yahoo has been its competitor traditionally.
As far as general text ad search advertising is concerned, it is regarding the text ads that appear along with the search results.
The court declared that in both these areas, Google had functioned as a monopoly. But, the ruling also said that since general search advertising does not classify as a market, there can be no monopoly.
Google’s Response
Ken Walker, president of global affairs at Google, revealed that the firm intends to appeal the decision. He said that the court had focused on the quality of the company’s products.
Walker said that it was clear from the court’s decision that Google offers best search engine. But, the court does not want it to be easily available.
He added that as they continue the process, their focus would remain on providing people products that are easy to use and helpful.
On Monday, Alphabet recorded a decline of more than 4% in its shares. Mostly, because of a broader decline in global stocks.
