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One of the biggest antitrust cases in the US is now over, as Google and DOJ wrapped things up after 2 months. The trial started on September 12, so it has technically been a little over two months at this point.
Google and DOJ wrapped up the antitrust case after approximately two months
As a reminder, the DOJ wanted to prove that Google abused its power in the market in order to keep its search monopoly. Google, of course, tried to prove otherwise. We’ve seen a ton of details shared during the trial, interesting details, despite the fact this was a semi-private trial.
This case was filed by the Trump administration, and the person assigned to oversee it was Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
It is also worth noting that the very final witness that the DOJ presented, on the final day of the trial, was Michael Whinston. He is an MIT economics professor who disagreed with Google while on the stand.
The last DOJ witness said Google is in the wrong
He said that Google didn’t have to compete with Microsoft to be exclusively pre-installed on smartphones. He also said that Google’s payments to Apple and others, which were over $26 billion in 2021, were monopoly profits paid to distributors.
Mr. Whinston also added that Google’s US market share of 90% also meant that the company had little incentive to improve quality. Google’s lawyer, John Schimdtlein, said that those payments were legal revenue-sharing deals. The company reiterated that a number of times during the trial.
The lawyer also added that Google is as popular because of its quality. He said that in order to tackle the statement made by Michael Whinston.
We won’t get the Judge’s final decision until sometime in 2024
Now, the antitrust case is now wrapped up, but the decision has not been made, of course. We’ll have to wait a bit in order to get the ruling. And by “a bit”, I mean until next year, as that’s when we’ll get the decision from Judge Amit Mehta.
Do note that appeals are likely regardless of what the decision is. Another thing to note is that previous cases that the US ran in the tech sector. Microsoft’s case in the late 90s is a good example, it went in the opposite direction. Those cases do tend to hurt the companies they’re presented against, though, so… we’ll see what will happen.