A federal court in the United States today found that Google is practicing a business monopoly in search and also search engine advertising in the United States. They have violated the Sherman Act which prevents companies from monopolizing business within the country.
For example in 2009 Google Search held 80% of search engine usage and increased to 90% in 2020. Google was dragged to court by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly monopolizing the search engine business.
The court judge also said that because of the huge monopoly by Google, other companies cannot offer other alternatives. Apple for example was paid $20 billion in 2022 to maintain Search in Safari because developing an alternative search engine was not profitable compared to the payments received.
What will be done next by the DOJ after the court decision in their favor is still unknown at this time. Google has issued a statement that it will file an appeal. It is likely that they will have to give users the option to change the default search engine on devices as they have done in Europe after the European Union found Google to monopolize search engines on the continent.
Today's court decision is the same as what happened to Microsoft which was also found guilty of monopolizing when it provided Internet Explorer with every Windows software to prevent their competitors like Netscape.