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Subject: [LINK] US judge rules Google is a monopoly, search deals with Apple and Mozilla in peril
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US judge rules Google is a monopoly, search deals with Apple and Mozilla in peril
 By Thom Holwerda, 2024-08-05
 - https://www.osnews.com/story/140425/us-judge-rules-google-is-a-monopoly-searxh-deals-with-apple-and-mozilla-in-peril/

"That sure is a big news drop for a random Tuesday.
 
 A federal judge ruled that Google violated US antitrust law by 
 maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.
 
 "After having carefully considered and weighed the witness 
 testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: 
 Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its 
 monopoly," according to the court's ruling, which you can read in 
 full at the bottom of this story. "It has violated Section 2 of the 
 Sherman Act."
   Lauren Feiner at The Verge
 
 Among many other things, the judge mentions Google's own admissions 
 that the company can do pretty much whatever it wants with Google 
 Search and its advertisement business, without having to worry 
 about users opting to go elsewhere or ad buyers leaving the Google 
 platform. Studies from inside Google itself made it very clear that 
 Google could systematically make Search worse without it affecting 
 user and/or usage numbers in any way, shape, or form - because 
 users have nowhere else to realistically go. While the ability to 
 raise prices at will without fear of losing customers is a sure 
 sign of being a monopoly, so is being able to make a product worse 
 without fear of losing customers, the judge argues.
 
 Google plans to appeal, obviously, and this ruling has nothing yet 
 to say about potential remedies, so what, exactly, is going to 
 change is as of yet unknown. Potential remedies will be handled 
 during the next phase of the proceedings, with the wildest and most 
 aggressive remedy being a potential break-up of Google, Alphabet, 
 or whatever it's called today. My sights are definitely set on a 
 break-up - hopefully followed by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and 
 Microsoft - to create some much-needed breathing room into the 
 technology market, and pave the way for a massive number of 
 newcomers to compete on much fairer terms.
 
 Of note is that the judge also put yet another nail in the coffin 
 of Google's various exclusivity deals, most notable with Apple and, 
 for our interests, with Mozilla. Google pays Apple well over 20 
 billion dollars a year to be the default search engine on iOS, and 
 it pays about 80% of Mozilla's revenue to be the default search 
 engine in Firefox. According to the judge, such deals are 
 anticompetitive." ...

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