A federal judge held last week that Google has a monopoly on online search and has been illegally defending that monopoly for years.
The verdict is important and correct, yet it leaves open an important question: What should the remedy be?
The government’s case centered on payments, which in 2021 totaled more than $26 billion, that Google pays Apple and others to be the default search engine on their products.
In doing so, Google kept Apple out of the search market and, the judge ruled, weakened its other competitors.
But if the court merely decrees that Google now abandon those agreements, it won’t be enough to unlock a long-monopolized market.
Persons:
Amit Mehta
Organizations:
Google, Biden, Apple