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US Judge Amit Mehta said Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search. For this, Google spent billions of dollars, exploiting its dominance to crush competition and stifle innovation.
This decision comes after a lawsuit that lasted for almost a year. After reviewing evidence and witnesses presented by officials of Google, Microsoft and Apple, Judge Amit Mehta gave a 277-page decision on Monday (August 5). Google’s global affairs chairman Kent Walker said that the company will appeal against this decision.
Google’s dominance is proof of its monopoly
The judgement found that Google’s dominance in the search market is evidence of its monopoly. Google has an 89.2% share in normal search services, rising to 94.9% on mobile.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has called the decision a historic victory for the American people. According to media reports, the next phase may now involve lengthy legal proceedings and appeals, which could potentially extend until 2026.
This court decision is a big setback for Alphabet
The court’s decision is a major blow to Google and its parent company Alphabet, which had argued that their popularity was fueled by consumers’ strong desire to use the search engine, which has become synonymous with looking things up online.
According to a recent report by investment firm BOND, Google’s search engine processes about 8.5 billion queries worldwide every day, almost double the daily searches of 12 years ago.
Alphabet’s stock gave a return of 21.75% in one year
Amid the fall in the global stock market, Google’s parent company Alphabet’s stock closed at 160.64 USD with a fall of 4.61% yesterday. Its stock has fallen by 6.62% in the last 5 days and 15.67% in one month. At the same time, Alphabet’s stock has given a positive return of 10.47% in 6 months and 21.75% in one year.
