The U.S. Department of Justice and a majority of U.S. states filed notices on Tuesday to appeal the remedies in a landmark antitrust case against Alphabet’s Google, according to court filings.
In 2024, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in the online search market, but declined to impose the most aggressive remedies sought by the government, such as forcing a divestiture of Chrome or banning key default search deals.
Reuters:
The Department of Justice and state attorneys general did not provide details in court documents about their appeal. Their challenge will likely focus on the judge’s decision not to make Google sell off its Chrome browser or end its lucrative arrangement with Apple to provide the default search engine on new devices.
Google is already appealing U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling that it broke the law to stave off competition in online search and related advertising. Google has asked the judge to pause his order that would require the company to share data with rivals during the appeal process, which could last many months.
Mehta rejected tougher remedies, such as making Google sell its Chrome browser or Android operating system, or banning the company from paying tens of billions of dollars to Apple to be the default search engine on new devices.
MacDailyNews Take: The odds of something substantive happening to reign in Google remain low.
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