A federal judge says Google is violating federal antitrust law by monopolizing its search through unfair business practices, including by paying other tech companies billions of dollars every year to set Google search as the default engine on computers and smartphones. The judge did not issue any remedy for the violations, however. 

Judge Amit Mehta of the federal district court for the District of Columbia says Google illegally cemented its place as the world’s number one search engine by working with other companies to keep competitors locked out of the market. The lawsuit was filed by President Trump’s Justice Department and several states in 2020, and resulted in a lengthy trial last year. 

Judge Mehta agreed with the government’s argument that Google’s business practices were monopolistic in nature. While Google in 2020 handled 90 percent of all searches, the second-most used engine took only six percent of searches. That engine was Microsoft’s Bing. 

Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, testified at the 2023 trial that Google and other companies created a kind of oligopoly in search engine technology. Mr. Nadella said that it could threaten the development of new technologies like artificial intelligence going forward, according to the New York Times. 

The snowball effect of Google becoming such a dominant search engine was aided, in part, by the company’s use of user data to create a smarter, faster technology. “Google is winning because it’s better,” the company’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, said at closing arguments last year, according to the Times. 

Judge Mehta ruled that it was not just the company’s technology or innovation that allowed it to become the dominant search engine, but its ability to suppress competitors by maintaining an overwhelming advantage in contract bids, for example. “Google’s immense revenues and large profit margins allow it to capture significant surplus from the challenged contracts,” Judge Mehta wrote. 

On the question of “indirect” evidence of monopolistic behavior, the judge writes that plaintiffs have “easily” demonstrated that market share domination exists, and that the company has raised the barriers of entry into the search engine market. 

A spokesman for Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

In the late stages of the Trump administration, Justice Department antitrust lawyers began investigating Silicon Valley giants for alleged monopolistic practices — investigations that have resulted in pending lawsuits from the DOJ and action by the Federal Trade Commission.