Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly

Alphabet’s Google on Friday appealed a Washington federal judge’s ruling ‌that it holds illegal monopolies in online search ‌and related advertising.

Here are some details:

• Google argued that U.S. ​Judge Amit Mehta made legal errors in his 2024 ruling, which found the company illegally blocked competitors by paying billions of dollars annually to firms including Apple ‌to be the ⁠default search engine on new devices.

• The arrangements did not prevent the device ⁠makers and browser developers from promoting rival search services like Microsoft’s Bing, Google argued.

• The company said it ​excelled in ​the market fairly by ​developing a “superior search engine ‌through hard work, bold innovation, and shrewd business decisions.”

• The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to file papers making its own arguments in July. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined to comment.

• Mehta ‌had ordered Google to share ​some search data with competitors, ​potentially including artificial ​intelligence companies such as OpenAI, to restore ‌competition. An appeals court ruling ​in Google’s ​favour would overturn that order.

• If Google loses at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ​District of Columbia ‌Circuit, it could appeal to the U.S. ​Supreme Court.