Why Google Might No Longer Appear as the Default Search Engine on Your Smartphone ?

This Monday, August 5, Google was found guilty by a Washington judge of anti-competitive practices.

Google was found guilty on Monday, August 5, of abusing its dominant position in online searches and advertising in its lawsuit against the US government. The ruling sets the stage for a second trial to determine potential remedies, such as requiring the company to end its contracts with smartphone companies so that Google will no longer be the default search engine on new phones.

Alphabet plans to appeal

“This ruling recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we should not be allowed to make it easily accessible,”, the tech giant said in a statement.

The “remediation phase” could be lengthy, followed by possible appeals, and could last into next year or even 2026. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland called the decision a “historic victory for the American people,” adding that “no company, no matter how big or influential, is above the law.”

The decision is a major victory for the Justice Department, the first against a monopolistic company in more than 20 years, which has been suing the search engine giant for its control of about 90% of the online search market, and 95% of smartphones.

“Maintaining its monopoly”

Federal judge Amit Mehtaa recalled that Google had paid 26.3 billion dollars (24.01 billion euros) in 2021 to ensure that its search engine appeared by default on smartphones and internet browsers, and to maintain its dominant market share.
"The court comes to the following conclusion: Google is a monopolistic company, and it acted as such to maintain its monopoly", wrote Amit Mehta.

According to Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, an analyst at Emarketer, "losing its ability to enter into default exclusivity agreements could be detrimental to Google" quot;. A drawn-out legal process would delay any immediate effect for consumers, she added.

Over the past four years, federal competition regulators have also pursued Meta Platforms, Amazon.com and Apple Inc for abuse of dominance. Another lawsuit against Google, regarding its advertising technology, is scheduled for September.

The last ruling of this magnitude was in 2004, when Microsoft reached a settlement with the US Department of Justice following accusations that it forced its Internet Explorer browser on users of Windows.