Written by: Haim Ravia, and Dotan Hammer
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) secured a legal victory against Google when a federal judge ruled that the company unlawfully maintains a monopoly in the online search market. The DOJ’s case focused on two main issues in Google’s business practices: exclusionary contracts and the network effects that reinforce Google’s dominance. The DOJ argued that by securing its search engine as the default on billions of devices, Google effectively stifled competition, ensuring users primarily relied on its search services over those of its rivals.
The court found that this monopoly was unlawfully maintained through exclusive agreements with manufacturers like Apple, Samsung, and Verizon, which made Google the default search engine on their devices and browsers. The court ruled that these agreements blocked competitors, restricted their access to user data, and discouraged innovation, thereby violating antitrust laws.
To secure this dominant position, Google paid billions of dollars to keep its search engine as the default option. In 2021 alone, Google spent over $26 billion to maintain its leading position in Safari.
Google tried to defend its practices by arguing that its dominance was the result of a superior product, claiming that users prefer to choose Google, not forced to do so by lack of access to alternatives. However, the judge concluded that the barriers that Google’s business practices created made genuine competition nearly impossible.
Click here to read the full case UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al v. GOOGLE LLC – 1:20-cv-03010.
