Report from Bloomberg
In Brief – The US Department of Justice has announced that it notified the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that it will appeal US District Judge Amit Mehta’s remedies order in the federal antitrust lawsuit that found Google engaged in illegal anti-competitive conduct to maintain and grow their monopoly in internet search and search-related online ads. Judge Mehta’s initial 2024 ruling, which focused on Google’s payments to device giants Apple and Samsung, was a win in the Big Tech antitrust litigation campaign that began in 2020. However, the judge’s remedies order, which eschewed the harshest requests from the plaintiffs, including the call to force Google to divest its Chrome browser, was seen as a result in Google’s favor. Mehta, who said that in his ruling that “courts must approach the task of crafting remedies with a healthy dose of humility,” barred Google from entering exclusive distribution agreements for Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and its Gemini app for six years, and requires the company to share certain search data and syndicated search results and ads with qualified competitors. Google has also appealed Mehta’s order.
Context – Judge Mehta’s remedies order was the first decent result for Google in an antitrust case in a couple of years. The rapid pace of technological change, particularly the rise of generative AI, was called out by Mehta who said that the new technologies “give the court hope that Google will not simply outbid competitors for distribution if superior products emerge.” Similarly, two months after Mehta’s remedies order, District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the Federal Trade Commission and State AGs failed to show that Meta currently holds a social media monopoly in the face of emergent giants including YouTube and TikTok. That decision is also being appealed. Finally, a remedies ruling is expected soon from District Judge Leonie Brinkema following Google’s AdTech antitrust trial loss, and in the EU and UK, Google is simply facing direct government regulation of their search business.