Alphabet-C's Victory! Downgrading of the Landmark Anti-Monopoly Lawsuit Faced by the Search Business

On Friday, August 4th, after a federal judge dismissed some of the allegations made by state attorneys general, Alphabet-C's search business, Alphabet-C, will face a reduced scale of antitrust litigation. This is seen as a major victory for Alphabet-C.

In a ruling announced on Friday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta stated that the allegations brought by state attorneys general in December 2020 failed to prove that Alphabet-C's search results harmed the interests of competitors such as Yelp, a U.S. restaurant review website, and Expedia, a travel services website.

Mehta preserved the Department of Justice's allegation that Alphabet-C's contracts with Apple, Mozilla, and smartphone manufacturers, which pre-install its search engine, harmed market competition.

Mehta stated:

The states' allegations against Alphabet-C's vertical search rely not on evidence, but almost entirely on expert opinions and speculation. In short, there is no record evidence of anticompetitive harm.

Mehta's decision eliminates a significant number of claims against Alphabet-C while preserving the core of the government's case against the search giant, clearing the way for the trial of this antitrust case.

The trial is scheduled to begin on September 12th. The market is now focused on whether the agreements Alphabet-C has reached with other companies to set its search engine as the default will continue. The plaintiffs argue that these agreements prevent competitors such as Microsoft's Bing and DuckDuckGo from expanding their scale and gaining market share. This case will be one of the most important antitrust lawsuits in the United States since the U.S. government sued Microsoft in the 1990s.

Alphabet-C is attempting to dismiss two antitrust cases brought separately by the Department of Justice and state attorneys general in 2020. The lawsuits allege that Alphabet-C's contracts ensuring its search engine is the default for web browsers and mobile devices violate U.S. antitrust laws.

Alphabet-C handles approximately 90% of global search engine queries. The U.S. Department of Justice sued Alphabet-C in October 2020, accusing it of "maintaining its monopoly through exclusive distribution agreements that guide billions of search queries to Alphabet-C each day," including contracts that make Alphabet-C the default search engine kernel for Apple's Safari browser and Mozilla's Firefox browser.

However, Alphabet-C's Chief Legal Officer, Kent Walker, stated in a statement:

People have more ways to access information than ever before, and they choose to use Alphabet-C because it is helpful. We look forward to proving in court that promoting and distributing our services is both legal and beneficial to market competition.

Phil Weiser, the Colorado Attorney General who leads the group of state attorneys general involved in the lawsuit, expressed his satisfaction that the case is proceeding to trial. Weiser stated in a statement:

We will continue to assess how best to advance and establish a pattern of illegal behavior by Alphabet-C that harms consumers and competition.

Some scholars believe that Mehta's decision is not surprising, as previous investigations into similar allegations against Alphabet-C have not resulted in formal charges.