For the first time in several decades, Google, the giant of online search and digital advertising, dey face federal court over antitrust allegations. The US Justice Department don propose changes to Google’s search engine practices, and dem even suggest say dem fit break up the company, though less drastic solutions be more probable.
According to Judge Amit Mehta’s assessment, Google dey control about 88% of the online general search market. The Justice Department’s original complaint, wey dem lodge in October 2020, claim say establishing a viable alternative to Google’s search engine go require billions of dollars in investment and millions in upkeep every year. Competing search engines like Microsoft‘s Bing and the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo don struggle to gain significant market share against Google despite years of trying.
The regulators believe say Google dey maintain its dominance partly because of exclusive agreements with companies like Apple. For example, Apple executives express interest in using DuckDuckGo as the default search engine in private browsing mode, but the terms of their agreement with Google prevent that idea from happening. Google make am very difficult for people to adopt DuckDuckGo, especially on Android devices where it take up to 20 steps to change the default search engine.
This fall, Google go return to court again to face allegations of unfair practices in the advertising technology sector. Recently, a jury find Google guilty of unfair business methods associated with the Google Play app store, following an initial lawsuit by Epic. In September 2024, Epic launch another antitrust lawsuit against Google and Samsung, claiming that Google continue to use its monopolistic power to undermine competition.
A US judge issue a permanent injunction on Monday, mandating that Google provide alternatives to its Play Store for app downloads on Android devices. While breaking up Google seem unlikely, some analysts believe say such a move could enhance shareholder value as the company compete for dominance in emerging sectors like cloud computing and generative artificial intelligence.
