A United States federal court has found that Google illegally abused its market power to quash competition in internet search. The ruling hands the Justice Department its biggest victory in more than two decades in limiting the power of Big Tech companies to control and dominate the huge markets they have created.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in his judgment on Monday.

Mehta ruled that the Justice Department was right in saying that Google violated antitrust law by forging restrictive contracts with Apple and other phone makers that required them to install Google as the default search engine on smartphones. He also decried other practices of the Alphabet Inc. unit that prevented its rivals from competing on an even playing field.

“This victory against Google is a historic win for the American people,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws,” reports Washington Post.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the ruling vindicated the belief of President Biden and Vice President Harris that the internet should be more competitive. “The Biden-Harris agenda is building an economy that ensures entrepreneurs and small businesses have a fair shot at the American Dream,” she said.

Google argued throughout the trial that its search engine faces competition from people looking for information in other places, such as on Amazon, TikTok and Reddit and increasingly via chatbots such as ChatGPT. In a statement after the ruling, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said the court itself agreed that the company’s search engine is the best option.

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” Walker said. “Given this, and that people are increasingly looking for information in more and more ways, we plan to appeal.”

Federal antitrust law has not been invoked against a big tech company since the Justice Department sued Microsoft more than two decades ago.

The Google antitrust case has been closely watched in antitrust law circles as the first in a string of cases federal prosecutors have launched against high-tech giants. Antitrust enforcers argue that Big Tech has gotten too powerful and doesn’t serve the public interest. Lawsuits have also been filed against Amazon, Meta and Apple.

Mehta wrote that Google has maintained its revenue growth and high operating profits by hiking its search advertising prices again and again, and that there was “no evidence” that market competition has been able to limit Google’s ability to raise these prices.

“The only apparent constraint on Google’s pricing decisions are potential advertiser outcry and bad publicity,” Mehta wrote. “Google, however, has managed to avoid those pitfalls by ramping up its pricing incrementally … many advertisers do not even realize that Google is responsible for the changes in price.”

The consequences of the ruling for Google and the broad online ecosystem are still unclear. The judge will rule on “remedies” for the case in the coming months. One potential measure would be for the court to block Google from paying to secure prime placement for its search engine on Apple’s iPhones and other devices and web browsers. But that could work out in Google’s favor, since its search engine might still be selected, and the company then wouldn’t have to pay the billions of dollars it currently does to secure that placement. Such a ruling could also end up depriving Apple of a significant source of revenue.

Other proposals from antitrust experts include requiring browsers and phone makers to directly ask consumers which search engine they would like to use when they first set up their device. This system has been tried in Europe, where Google has still largely maintained its dominance.

-Washington Post