How Google Lost Its Antitrust Case to the U.S.
For the second time in eight months, Google lost an antitrust case in the U.S. Following the December 2023 loss to Epic Games, which was more embarrassing than anything for Google, the search giant gave the U.S. government its first antitrust win as part of its anti-Big Tech crusade.
Google had a thin line to walk in going up against the U.S. government. The company needed to talk up its search acumen, but not so much as to imply that no other company could realistically compete. If the court ran with a narrow relevant product market – which it ended up doing – Google would have even less room to breathe. There is no denying that Google holds a monopoly in general search. While holding ~90% market share is legal, the practices and behavior used to retain that 90% market share can be found to be illegal.
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