Four years after the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit v. Google, the judge presiding over the case has made a decision: “Google is a monopolist and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Monday that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act, which makes anti-competitive behavior illegal. The ruling excluded Google's multi billion dollars agreements with Apple, Samsung and Mozilla to make it the default search engine in their products, Marking “exclusive” and “anti-competitive” partnerships. ^{Judge Amit Mehta, of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)}

Although Google has declared that it plans to appeal the decision, the case marks an important turning point, according to Damian Rollison, director of market insights at marketing company AI SOCI.

“(The ruling) represents the most concrete signal yet that antitrust activity could ultimately affect Google's business and the role the company plays in the lives of so many consumers,” Rollison told Entrepreneur.

Rollison added that he didn't think Google's dominance in search, with over 90% of the global market, would upset most people, but that dominance is now under threat. Google faces AI competitors such as inattention and OpenAI SearchGPT, with its legal challenges. There were also USERS complaints about Google low quality research.

“Google has argued and will continue to argue that its dominance is due to product superiority,” Rollison said. “That was true in the initial phase of growth to become a major search engine, but it's probably no longer such a defensible position.”

Rollison stated that Google had a history of favoring itself and its services in search results.

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“When was the last time you went to a website dedicated to looking up the meaning of a word?” Rollison asked.

Search results that provide information and answers to travel, shopping and local questions “are provided directly by Google on Google-owned search pages with Google-owned properties, monetized through Google-owned ad placements,” he said. .

Google's world of self-serving search could change because of the decision: The tech giant may have to separate its search business from advertising, for example, according to Rollison. With the appeal and sentencing still to be decided, it could it takes months to know how this court decision affects Google.

However, the decision creates a precedent for pending DOJ antitrust cases against Big Tech companies, including a counter Apple.

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