A US federal court has ruled on Monday that Google violates US antitrust laws after finding that it controls approximately 90 percent of the Internet search market.
“After carefully considering and weighing the testimony and evidence, the court has reached the following conclusion: Google is a monopoly and has acted as such to maintain its monopoly,” explains the text of Judge Amit Mehta, of the District of Columbia. “It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act,” he said in reference to the 1890 law that prohibits monopolies.
This decision represents a major setback for Google’s oldest and most important business in which it has invested billions of dollars in exclusivity contracts to guarantee itself a dominant position as the main search engine on mobile phones and Internet browsers.
Those contracts have allowed it to block potential rivals such as Bing or DuckDuckGo, according to the complaint that now results in this ruling, filed during the Donald Trump administration.
Now that dominant position has led to anti-competitive behavior that must cease, according to the federal judge’s ruling, reported by CNN.
Google has exclusive contracts with Apple and other large technology companies to ensure its dominance in the mobile phone system, according to Mehta. In addition, Google has charged high rates for search advertising that are a consequence of its monopoly, he added.
