Report from The Verge
In Brief – US District Court Judge Amit Mehta has summarily denied Apple’s emergency request to stay his recent decision rejecting their effort to halt the Google Search monopoly trial and join the litigation directly to protect their interests, in particular the highly lucrative agreement Google has had to be the default search provider on Apple devices. Last August, Mehta sided with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and ruled that Google held a monopoly in the market for general internet search and engaged in illegal conduct to maintain that search monopoly, especially through large payments to Apple and Samsung to make its search engine the default option on smartphones and browsers. Judge Mehta will determine Google’s penalties and corrective actions this year, with the in-court portion of the trial’s remedies phase set for April. Last fall, the DoJ asked for very aggressive conduct remedies including forcing Google to spin off its Chrome browser, modify Android, restrict AI efforts, and allow competitors to access Google’s search data. Google called it a “wildly overbroad proposal” that went “miles beyond the Court’s decision” and submitted an offer that would prohibit it from engaging in the conduct Mehta ruled illegally protected Google search from potential competitors. Apple then requested to join the litigation claiming that Google was not likely to defend the contract relationships that pay Apple almost $20 billion a year.
Context – If Judge Mehta accepts even some parts of the DoJ remedy it would be the most aggressive US effort to rein in a tech giant since the DoJ attempt to break up Microsoft in 2000. It would be even more striking given his relatively narrow findings of illegality and harm. The aggressive Biden antitrust enforcers have moved on but some high-profile officials in the new administration have been very critical of Google in the past. President Trump has often complained that Google search treats him unfairly but has also said breaking up big US companies like Google might be a bad idea. Finally, Judge Mehta certainly knows that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson’s order breaking up Microsoft in 2000 was overturned on appeal.