Google has filed its appeal in a Justice Department antitrust case that ended with a federal judge’s ruling that the company was maintaining a monopoly over its search business. While the company goes through the appeals process, it is also asking that the implementation of measures from the case be halted, including a requirement that Google share search data with its competitors.
“As we have long said, the court’s August 2024 decision ignores the reality that people use Google because they want to, not because they are forced to,” Google said in a statement. “The decision failed to take into account the rapid pace of innovation and intense competition coming from established players and well-funded start-ups. And it rejected compelling testimony from browser makers like Apple and Mozilla, who said they chose to feature Google because it offers the highest quality search experience for their consumers.”
The company says the requirement to “provide syndication services to competitors” and share search data is a privacy risk and could “discourage competitors from creating their own products.” Both measures build on a compromise originally proposed by the Justice Department, which would have involved forcing Google to sell its Chrome web browser.
After a 10-week trial conducted in 2023, Google received a search monopoly in 2024, as it was retained as the default search engine on many platforms, and had control over the advertisements that appeared in search results. Both arguments were key points in the DOJ’s original 2020 lawsuit.
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