Google has challenged a major United States court ruling that accused the company of illegally dominating online search, opening a new phase of legal battles over its market power.
The decision, handed down in August 2024 by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, found that Google maintained an illegal search monopoly. Google rejects that conclusion, arguing its market position is driven by user choice rather than unfair practices.
“The court’s ruling overlooked the simple fact that people use Google because they choose to, not because they are compelled to,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s Vice President for Regulatory Affairs.
In filing the appeal, Google said the ruling failed to reflect the speed of innovation in the sector and the competitive pressures reshaping search, particularly from emerging artificial intelligence technologies. The company is also seeking a pause on court-ordered remedies designed to curb its market power.
When outlining those remedies in September, Judge Mehta acknowledged that generative AI had altered the search landscape but declined to approve a government-backed breakup of Google, including a proposed spin-off of its Chrome browser. Instead, he opted for narrower measures intended to ease barriers for rivals.
Those measures include compelling Google to share selected search data with court-approved competitors and allowing some rivals to display Google’s search results as their own, a move the court said would give smaller firms room to develop competing products.
Google has pushed back strongly against the requirements. Mulholland warned that forcing the company to share search data and syndication services would “risk Americans’ privacy” and weaken incentives for competitors to build independent technologies, ultimately slowing innovation.
The appeal comes as Google’s expanding push into AI faces growing global scrutiny. European regulators last month opened an investigation into the company’s AI-generated search summaries, questioning whether publishers’ content was used without fair compensation. Google has said the probe threatens innovation in an already competitive market.
Despite intensifying regulatory pressure, Google’s financial strength remains undiminished. This week, its parent company Alphabet became only the fourth firm in history to reach a market valuation of $4 trillion, underscoring the high stakes as courts weigh how to rein in Big Tech’s power without derailing technological progress.