Alphabet plans appeal after US court rules Google illegally monopolised search—Here’s all we know
Alphabet said it intends to appeal the landmark antitrust ruling that found the company illegally monopolized online search and search advertising by Google, Bloomberg reported.
Following the new decision, Google shares have increased by 56% since September, when the decision was announced. This is largely due to their leaders in the competitive artificial intelligence (AI) race.
Google: ‘The solutions are misplaced and should never have been implemented’
Google appealed the decision, saying Mehta’s order forced it to share data with rivals and that complying with it risked revealing its trade secrets and that it would be impossible to recover them if the appeal went in its favor, according to a report by Reuters.
“While Google believes that these solutions are unwarranted and should never have been imposed, it is prepared to do anything but turn over its data or deliver boilerplate results and ads while the appeal is pending,” the company said in the report.
What did the US Federal Court’s decision say about Google?
The case was first filed during US President Donald Trump’s first term in 2020. The case went to trial in the second half of 2023, and in August 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had illegally monopolized the search market.
In his order, Judge Mehta said the company’s contracts with Apple and Samsung Electronics requiring the use of the Google search engine as the default browser stymied competitors and led to an illegal monopoly.
However, the report noted that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) rejected a recommendation to force Google to sell its Chrome browser, instead ordering an annual re-offering of the default search engine option to allow rivals opportunities to compete. Google pays more than $20 billion a year for deals with Apple and Samsung.
What awaits Google in the antitrust case in the USA?
Despite being found to have numerous illegal monopolies, Google has emerged “largely unscathed” from battles with U.S. antitrust enforcers over the years, the Reuters report said.
The Justice Department has until February 3 to appeal Judge Mehta’s dismissal of Google’s rulings on antitrust violations.
(With input from institutions)
