Even before the effects of the monopoly decision against Google became clear, the US Department of Justice and several states have taken a new step that could pave the way for harsher sanctions against the tech giant. The US Department of Justice officially announced that it would appeal the decision made last year, which did not mandate Google to divest its Chrome browser. It is stated that some states have also joined this appeal.
Google is Being Appealed
In the decision rendered in 2025, the US Department of Justice had requested that Google be forced to sell Chrome, one of its most popular internet browsers. However, District Judge Amit Mehta, who presided over the case, rejected this request. In his decision, Mehta stated that the plaintiffs had gone too far and concluded that Google did not directly use the assets in question for illegal competitive restrictions.
Despite this, the court made some decisions regarding Google's business model. Accordingly, the company was mandated to end exclusive agreements it applied in the distribution of some of its services and to share certain search data with its competitors. Nevertheless, these regulations were found to be lenient and limited by antitrust circles.
In this process, not only public authorities but also Google is engaged in an active legal battle. The tech giant has already filed its own appeal against the restrictions imposed by the court. The company's goal is to prevent harsher sanctions and to lighten existing regulations as much as possible.
This situation turns the case into a two-way appeal process, indicating that the final outcome could take a long time to materialize.
What Happened?
It will be recalled that Judge Mehta, in his decision in August 2024, had ruled that Google illegally maintained its monopoly position in the search engine market. Google's share of the global search engine market was found to be approximately 90 percent.
Court documents highlighted the high-value agreements Google made with hardware manufacturers to maintain this position. It was stated that the company paid approximately 20 billion dollars annually to Apple and a total of 8 billion dollars to Samsung over four years, and thanks to these agreements, Google was positioned as the default search engine on devices.
The appeal by the Department of Justice and the states opens the door for theoretically bringing back harsher solutions, such as the forced sale of Chrome or a complete ban on such default search engine agreements. However, the process is not expected to move quickly. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is known to rule on such cases within approximately one year.
On the other hand, even if a harsher decision against Google comes out of the appeal, Alphabet still has the right to take the process to higher courts. This indicates that the final outcome of Google's antitrust case could take years.
0 Comments: