US v. Google: all the news from the search antitrust showdown

On August 5th, 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled in the case of United States of America v. Google, saying, “…the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly. It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.”

Nearly a year later, the judge has followed that up with a ruling on remedies for Google’s search monopoly. While lawyers for the Department of Justice had argued that Google should be broken up and forced to split off products like Chrome, Search, and Android, Judge Mehta has ruled against the DOJ’s proposed remedies, banning exclusive deals but leaving others, like its massive search default deal with Apple, and allowing Google to keep Chrome.

Of course, even that isn’t enough to end the biggest tech antitrust trial since the US took on Microsoft in the 1990s — possibly aside from the government’s antitrust case targeting Google’s ad business. Lawyers for Google and the Department of Justice will continue arguing over the ruling in appeals, as well as what to do about the company and its products.

Read on below for all of the updates and notes from the case.

• Google critics think the search remedies ruling is a total whiff
• Here’s what Google and the DOJ had to say about the search remedies ruling.
• Google gets to keep Chrome, judge rules in search antitrust case
• Inside the courthouse reshaping the future of the internet
• The Google remedies trial is over.
• Google wants a 60-day stay on any remedies.
• Google attorney: “This is a trainwreck of a technical committee.”
• The “delicate balance” of advertisers.
• Back to Google, into overtime.
• Lightning round.
• “Hey, you wanna try Bing for ten bucks?”
• We’re nearing the end.
• “Google thinks it’s the only one that can invent things.”
• “The value of Chrome to Google is substantially more than the value of Chrome to anyone else.”
• Google’s attorney cites a “laundry list” of reasons selling Chrome (and maybe Android) is bad.
• The future of Chromium depends on acquihiring, apparently.
• The future of Chromium.
• “Let’s talk about Chrome.”
• A quick recap.
• Judge: “I’m not sure Microsoft would even step forward and put very much in the pot.”
• “Microsoft’s not coming in with a non-exclusive deal,” says Google lawyer.
• “We just like, threw it out there, to see what would happen!”
• “Maybe people don’t want ten blue links anymore.”
• Can Google possibly lose in a ban on placement deals?
• Should Firefox die to punish Google?
• “Those payments have frozen the ecosystem.”
• Next up: distribution.
• Another break.
• Privacy is becoming a sticking point.
• “I think the privacy stuff is a complete failure here.”
• We’re back to Google.
• Could Google only share the long tail?
• “Nobody’s really testified about user-side data.”
• Mehta still seems skeptical of the link between AI and search.
• Should AI companies get syndicated data from Google?
• Back now, talking about data and scale.
• Break time.
• “Our remedies are tied to barriers to entry.”
• Google is still the best search engine for Apple, says attorney.
• AI is back up for debate.
• Judge Mehta: is there a middle ground on data-sharing?
• “By definition, network effects crowd out competition,” says Mehta.
• Google lawyer: “Was anybody clamoring to preload Bing on these devices?”
• Google’s lawyer is up.
• Lots of AI questions to the DOJ.
• “Google’s self-reinforcing monopoly machine.”
• Closing arguments in the Google search antitrust trial.
• Google rejected giving publishers more choice to opt out of AI Search
• Eddy Cue is fighting to save Apple’s $20 billion paycheck from Google
• Apple’s Eddy Cue: ‘You may not need an iPhone 10 years from now’
• Google searches are falling in Safari for the first time ever — probably because of AI
• Apple is looking at adding Perplexity and other AI search engines to Safari
• DOJ’s proposed Google changes would ‘deeply undermine user trust,’ search chief says
• Publisher opt-outs of AI training cut Google’s DeepMind training data in half.
• Firefox could be doomed without Google search deal, says executive
• Sundar Pichai says the DOJ’s antitrust plan could kill Google Search
• Google confirms it’s close to getting Gemini support on iPhones
• Tough day in court for Google Plus and Google Buzz.
• Sundar Pichai says the remedies against Google would be a crushing blow.
• It’s Sundar time in US v. Google.
• Chrome could suffer apart from Google, says Google.
• Google is paying Samsung an ‘enormous sum’ to preinstall Gemini
• Why are companies lining up to buy Chrome?
• Yahoo wants to buy Chrome
• Perplexity wants to buy Chrome if Google has to sell it
• Money, Chrome, and ChatGPT: The high stakes of Google’s monopoly trial
• The Department of Justice really, really wants Google to sell Chrome.
• The future of Google Search is back in court.
• Google is in more danger than ever of being broken up
• Google agrees to let employees talk about its Search antitrust trial.
• Trump’s DOJ still says Google should be broken up
• DOJ says it will let Google pay Apple for services unrelated to search.
• Apple’s attempt to intervene in the Google Search antitrust trial is denied
• Apple asks court to halt Google search monopoly case
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells employees to expect a hard 2025.
• Eddy Cue explains why Apple won’t make a search engine
• Apple would like to step in to defend its Google search deal.
• Google to court: we’ll change our Apple deal, but please let us keep Chrome
• Google’s counteroffer to the government trying to break it up is unbundling Android apps
• Breaking down the DOJ’s plan to end Google’s search monopoly
• Google responds to DOJ’s ‘extreme proposal.’
• DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly
• Google workers to DOJ: we need protections to make your breakup effective
• Could Chrome be ready to Rumble?
• US lawyers will reportedly try to force Google to sell Chrome and unbundle Android
• Google is replacing the exec in charge of Search and ads
• How the DOJ wants to break up Google’s search monopoly
• A Google breakup is on the table, say DOJ lawyers
• The DOJ will have its proposed plan to deal with Google’s monopoly soon.
• The DOJ wants info on Google’s AI strategy to bust up its search monopoly
• Yelp sues Google for antitrust violations
• What Google rivals want after the DOJ’s antitrust trial win
• Google lost its first antitrust case, so what happens next?
• ‘There’s no price’ Microsoft could pay Apple to use Bing: all the spiciest parts of the Google antitrust ruling
• Now that Google is a monopolist, what’s next?
• Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case
• Well, that’s an interesting name for it.
• As Google’s antitrust trial wraps, DOJ seeks sanctions over missing messages
• Multibillion-dollar Apple deal looms large in Google antitrust trial
• Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be Safari’s default search engine.
• A Google witness let slip just how much it pays Apple for Safari search
• ‘Android is a massive tracking device.’
• Here’s a rare look at Google’s most lucrative search queries
• Sundar Pichai argues in court that Google isn’t evil, it’s just a business
• Google agreed to not promote Chrome to Safari users.
• Google once asked Apple to preload its search app on iOS
• It’s Internet Explorer day in US v. Google!
• Hello again from DC District Court!
• Google paid a whopping $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine everywhere
• “Chrome exists to serve Google search.”
• Sundar Pichai will testify in US v. Google on Monday.
• Google reportedly pays $18 billion a year to be Apple’s default search engine
• The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up
• Read Sundar Pichai’s full email conversation about the Apple-Google deal.
• The Google trial shows that Apple’s search deal is the most important contract in tech
• Back in 2007, Sundar Pichai thought Google shouldn’t be Safari’s only search option.
• Details of Apple’s talks to replace Google with Bing and even DuckDuckGo revealed in unsealed court testimony
• Today on The Vergecast: Big Tech goes to court.
• Satya Nadella tells a court that Bing is worse than Google — and Apple could fix it
• An hour-long history lesson about Microsoft’s many failures in mobile.
• Microsoft doesn’t think AI is going to upend search competition – it thinks it could get even more locked-down.
• Satya Nadella says Bing was prepared to lose billions just to be Apple’s search default.
• Good morning from DC District Court!
• One of the documents Google wanted hidden in its trial compared the search ads business to “cigarettes or drugs.”
• Satya Nadella is testifying in US v. Google next week.
• The Google antitrust trial is opening back up… a little
• Apple defends Google Search deal in court: ‘There wasn’t a valid alternative’
• Would Safari have been popular without its Google integration?
• Should Apple add a search engine choice screen to the iPhone setup process?
• Apple’s Eddy Cue says there’s really no “valid alternative to Google.”
• The US v. Google court is starting in closed session today. Again.
• Today’s an important day in US v. Google.
• Apple’s Eddy Cue will take the stand Tuesday in the Google antitrust trial
• The Google antitrust trial is still maddeningly locked-down.
• Clickbait? In my antitrust trial?
• Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see
• Okay, can we see Google trial documents or not?
• Will US v. Google evidence stay public? We still don’t know.
• Justice Department and Google spar over public access to antitrust trial files
• Google quietly raised ad prices to boost search revenue, says executive
• US v. Google, Week Two begins.
• In the Google antitrust trial, defaults are everything and nobody likes Bing
• Breaking down the Google antitrust trial.
• Opening arguments in US v. Google just ended! Only ten weeks left to go.
• “We don’t have good data on actual user switching.”
• Bing is already Google’s punching bag for the trial.
• There’s still an ads case inside this search case against Google.
• What makes a search engine a search engine?
• 50 percent of Google searches allegedly come through a paid-for default deal.
• “Defaults matter, but they’re not determinative.”
• The antitrust trial against Google Search starts today — here’s what to expect
• How Google plans to win its antitrust trial