Google loses major antitrust case over search, declared a monopoly by judge

In a major blow to Google, a federal judge on Monday ruled that the tech giant maintained and abused a monopoly on web searches.

The much-anticipated decision marks a major victory for federal regulators trying to reign in the power of big tech and is likely to send shock-waves through the tech world.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” US District Judge Amit Mehta wrote in her opinion.

Regulators alleged that Google maintained a monopoly on web searches in part by paying phone makers to load the company’s search functions into their products. In doing so, Google was able to corner the search ad market, the Justice Department argued.

Judge Mehta agreed with those claims.

The Justice Department sued Google in 2020, citing its dominance of the search business.

This is a developing story.