Google loses antitrust lawsuit over online advertising

U.S. Federal Judge Amit Mehta on Monday ruled that Google has a monopoly in the search engine market and has acted as a monopolist to maintain dominance. He found that Google maintained a monopolies on its search services and also on text ads that appear with the searches. The judge dismissed a third charge, finding that what the Department of Justice called general search advertising is not a market. The charges were filed by DOJ in 2020.

Mehta’s ruling follows a nine-week trial, millions of pages of evidence changing hands, dozens of witnesses being deposed, numerous post-trial submissions, and two days of closing arguments earlier this year. The Justice Department sued Google in 2023 for running a monopoly over the internet advertising markets, a new and separate lawsuit.

How exactly did Mehta find that Google violated the law? Google secured a widespread default browser status through distribution contracts with internet browsers, phone companies, and wireless carriers. In 2021, Google paid out $26.3 billion in traffic acquisition costs through such contracts, according to the ruling. More users meant more advertisers and more advertising revenue—roughly $146 billion in 2021 compared to the search engine Bing’s advertising revenue of $12 billion, Mehta observed. But through such behavior, the company violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, Mehta ruled.