Google lost the antitrust lawsuit in the US Department of Justice regarding default search engines

A federal judge ruled on Monday that Google's payments to make its search engine the default search engine on smartphone web browsers violated US antitrust laws, representing a key victory for the US Department of Justice. Judge Amit Mehta in Washington stated that the $26 billion paid by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., effectively prevented any other competitors from succeeding in the market. Antitrust enforcers allege that Google illegally maintained a monopoly on online search and related advertising. The government agency stated that Google has paid tens of billions of dollars to companies such as Apple, Samsung Electronics, and others over the years to become the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers. This has helped Google become the most widely used search engine globally, generating over $300 billion in annual revenue, with the majority coming from search advertising