Judge narrows US case that says Google illegally protects monopoly

WASHINGTON – A federal judge said this week that the Justice Department and a group of states could not move forward with some claims in antitrust complaints against Google, narrowing the scope of what is set to be the most significant federal monopoly trial against a tech giant in decades.

In the decision, which was unsealed on Friday, judge Amit Mehta of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed four claims in the lawsuits and allowed government lawyers to move forward with three.

Judge Mehta wrote that a trial was warranted to assess whether Google’s exclusivity deals for web browsers and preloading its services on Android devices illegally helped the Internet company maintain a monopoly.

But he said the government had not “demonstrated the requisite anticompetitive effect” to prove that Google broke the law in other ways, such as by boosting its own products in search results over those of specialised sites, such as Amazon and Yelp.

The decision sets the stage for the first major tech monopoly trial since the federal government took Microsoft to court in the 1990s, amid a renewed backlash over the power of tech giants.

In recent years, US regulators have filed lawsuits and tried to block the acquisitions of companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as they have grown in reach and size.

Some efforts by regulators to challenge the tech giants have faltered. Twice this year, federal judges have declined to grant Federal Trade Commission requests to stop tech deals, allowing Meta to close the purchase of a virtual reality start-up and clearing the way for Microsoft’s blockbuster acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard.

But the Google trial, which is scheduled to begin Sept 12, stands out as the most direct government attempt in years to confront one of the world’s biggest tech companies about longtime business practices.

The trial is expected to last almost 10 weeks and to scrutinise not only how Google conducts business, but also its relationships with other major companies, such as Apple and Samsung, which have largely been shrouded in secrecy.

Mr Bill Baer, a former Justice Department antitrust official, said the cases were as significant as the landmark litigation against Microsoft.

The outcome “will set an important precedent about whether these dominant tech platforms are engaging in behaviour that limits competition and disadvantages consumers”. NYTIMES