Google is sentenced to a search monopoly, with the possibility of being split up

The party suing is the US Department of Justice and dozens of state attorneys general since 2020 accusing Alphabet. According to the lawsuit, parent company Google is accused of spending tens of billions of dollars each year to have its search engine "unauthorized by default" globally.

On August 5, judge Amit P. Mehta announced the court's conclusion: "Google is a monopoly and they take such actions to maintain their dominant position."

Alphabet still has time to make adjustments and fixes. However, Alphabet said it plans to appeal.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland called the court's decision "a historic victory for the American people", and once again affirmed that "no company, no matter how large or influential, can above the law".

Karine Jean-Pierre, a White House spokeswoman, said "the ruling promoting competition is a victory for the American people, who deserve a free, fair and open Internet."

According to court documents, Google currently controls about 90% of the overall online search market and 95% on smartphones. To maintain this market share, the company spent $26.3 billion in 2021 alone.

Apple is one of the companies that receives the most money from Google, in 2022 it will be about 20 billion USD, equivalent to 17.5% of the iPhone company's operating income.

Since 2017, 54% of Google's search revenue each year has come from the default search engine on Safari, Firefox and other browsers.

If replaced, in 2020 Alphabet could lose 60-80% of search volume on Apple devices if replaced, equivalent to a loss of 28.2 billion to 32.7 billion USD. Therefore, the court's judgment against Google caused damages to both sides of tens of billions of dollars.

Analysts predict that, after the ruling on Alphabet, it may have to split the company.

Micah Soto

Update 07 August 2024