Hibapress
The US justice system on Monday accused technology giant Google of acting illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search.
In a ruling by a federal judge in the District of Columbia, the US justice system found that by paying billions of dollars to be the automatic search engine on consumer devices, Google has prevented its rivals from competing with it, local press reports.
The ruling, issued by Judge Amit P. Mehta, is the first antitrust decision of the modern Internet era in a case against a technology giant.
It follows a Justice Department complaint accusing Google of illegally cementing its dominance, in part, by paying other companies, such as Apple and Samsung, billions of dollars a year to make Google the default search engine on their smartphones and web browsers.
According to local press, while this decision does not provide for a fine against Google, it could influence other antitrust proceedings by the government against it, but also against Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
The government also accused Google of maintaining its monopoly on ads served in search results, which generate billions of dollars in annual revenue for the tech company.
