Federal judge agrees with AG Ferguson that Google’s search business is an unlawful monopoly

Washington partnered with a bipartisan coalition of 38 AGs in federal antitrust lawsuit

SEATTLE - Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued the following statement after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., agreed with his lawsuit that technology giant Google unlawfully leverages its dominance in the online search and related text advertising markets through exclusionary contracts, harming both consumers and advertisers.

"Google undermines competition and squelches innovation to protect its profits. Today's ruling from a federal judge affirms the evidence presented by our bipartisan coalition: Google wields monopoly power over online search. Fair competition ensures a robust, healthy marketplace where the consumer is the priority. Google's unlawful monopoly cripples competition and harms consumers. We will continue holding powerful interests accountable when they engage in unfair, anticompetitive conduct that harms Washingtonians."

U.S. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta today agreed with the attorneys general and the Department of Justice - which filed a separate but similar lawsuit - that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act by maintaining a monopoly over its general search and text advertising businesses.

Case background

Ferguson joined the bipartisan group of 38 attorneys general to file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December of 2020. The lawsuit asserts that Google and its parent company Alphabet Inc. used exclusionary contracts and unlawful self-preferencing business practices to protect its monopoly, harming consumers, undermining competition and squelching innovation that could threaten its dominance in the market for general internet search and related search text advertising.

Google annually provides billions of dollars in financial incentives to pre-install Google Search as the default or exclusive search program on established and emerging internet-connected devices ranging from computers and smart phones to voice-based home speakers and internet-connected vehicles. The bipartisan lawsuit asserts that this is an anticompetitive practice intended to protect Google's monopoly, and, consequently, unlawful.

Nearly 90 percent of all internet searches in the United States run through Google's search engine. No other competing search engine has more than 7 percent of the market.

Google closely tracks and analyzes virtually every search and click by consumers - people whom Google's chief economist describes as the "great unwashed" - and then leverages that user data to strengthen its position in the extremely lucrative search-based advertising market.

In the last decade, Google's revenue from search advertising has grown 300 percent. In 2019, search advertising accounted for $98 billion in revenue for Google - more than the gross domestic product of 129 countries and the budgets of 46 states, the lawsuit notes.

Losing searches and clicks - and the opportunity to collect valuable user data - means losing revenue.

The judge agreed today with this claim. Ferguson and other attorneys general also alleged claims that that Google's search engine unlawfully drove consumers away from specialized sellers, such as airline ticket sellers, that provide a similar service and that Google unlawfully used its own search advertising management tool to drive advertisers to its platform. The judge did not agree with either of those claims.

Ferguson's lawsuit seeks to stop Google's anticompetitive conduct and void any contracts that unlawfully block competitors to Google's services and provide additional relief to restore competition, including, if necessary, requiring the company to divest from portions of its business that facilitate its monopoly.

The judge will now turn to deciding the consequences Google must face for its actions.

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