A federal judge has made a significant ruling in the high-stakes antitrust case against technology giant Alphabet’s Google. The case, brought by a bipartisan group of 38 state attorneys general in 2020, accused Google of monopolistic practices in its search engine dominance.
In a decision revealed last Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed a legal theory put forward by the state attorneys general in their lawsuit. However, he did allow both the Justice Department and the state attorneys general to present other arguments during the upcoming non-jury trial, set to commence in September.
Google currently handles approximately 90% of all global search engine queries. The Justice Department initiated legal action against Google in October 2020, alleging that the company maintains a monopoly through exclusive distribution agreements that funnel billions of search queries to Google on a daily basis. These agreements include contracts that designate Google as the default search engine on popular browsers like Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.
The ruling by Judge Mehta is a significant development leading up to the trial, as it narrows the scope of the case. Despite this setback for the state attorneys general, they will still have the opportunity to present their remaining arguments during the trial. As the trial approaches, the spotlight will remain on Google’s search dominance and whether it has violated antitrust laws, making it a crucial moment for both Google and the regulators challenging the tech giant’s practices.
