Google has built an illegal monopoly around its search engine, an American judge ruled. Billion-dollar deals that Google concluded left the competition no chance.

The court in Washington yesterday issued its ruling in an antitrust lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit began when Donald Trump was still president and has reached a conclusion against Google. The ruling describes Google as a “monopolist” that distorted competition in the search market with countless billion-dollar deals in order to keep its search engine in the saddle.

When you say search engine, you say Google. Google is by far the most used search engine. There are alternatives, but its biggest competitor, Bing, has less than four percent of the market share, while Google has ninety percent. Google claims that its dominance in search is simply the result of the fact that it has the best product, but the court sees it differently.

Under one roof

The decisive factor in Google’s conviction was several billion-dollar deals with other parties that came to light during the trial. Google worked with smartphone manufacturers, web browsers and telecommunications operators to promote its search engine. Google was willing to pay a lot of money for this: Apple alone paid more than twenty billion dollars a year to be the default search engine in Safari.

The court ruled that Google had unlawfully strengthened its market position. The competition, which wanted to benefit from this, was forced to participate in the billion-dollar offer.

The Financial Times describes the verdict as a “significant victory” for political decision-makers in the power struggle against Big Tech. The exact sentence will only be determined at a subsequent hearing. In addition to a large fine, the court could also demand “structural” solutions, such as the splitting up of Google’s parent company Alphabet.

In the appeal proceedings

Google has now responded to the ruling. The company interprets the statement, with a touch of sarcasm, as confirmation that it has the best search engine, “but concludes that we should not make it easily available,” says Kent Walker, VP Global Affairs, on X.

Google can and most likely will appeal. This could drag on the case for several years. Google and American politicians will soon be looking each other in the eye again. Another case is pending against Google because of its dominance in the digital advertising market.