Google says it will sue the search antitrust decision online
(Reuters) – Alphabet’s Google on Saturday said a federal judge would appeal an antitrust decision that proposed a less offensive way to restore online search competition than the 10-year regime proposed by antitrust enforcement officials.
“We are waiting for the court’s opinion, and we strongly believe that the court’s original decision was wrong and look forward to our final appeal,” Google said in a post on X.
Washington US District Judge Amit Metah heard that on Friday he concluded the debate with a trial over a proposal to address Google’s illegal monopoly in online searches and related advertising.
In April, a federal judge said Google illegally controlled two markets for its online advertising technology, and the US Department of Justice said Google should at least sell Google Ad Manager.
The DOJ and the state coalition hopes Google will share search data and make billions of dollars payments the default search engine for Apple and other smartphone makers for new devices.
Antitrust enforcers are concerned about how Google’s search monopoly will benefit artificial intelligence products like Gemini and vice versa.
Google’s lawyer John Schmidtlein said that while Hearnative AI is affecting the look of searches, Google is addressing concerns about AI competition by not entering into exclusive agreements with wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, and is addressing concerns about AI competition by freely loading rival searches and AI apps on new devices.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal of Bengaluru, edited by Alistair Bell)