A federal judge said this week that the Justice Department and a group of states cannot move forward with certain claims in antitrust complaints against Google, narrowing the scope of what is set to be the most important federal monopoly trial against a tech giant for decades.
In the decision, which was unsealed Friday, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed four claims in the lawsuits and allowed government lawyers to move forward with three.
Judge Mehta wrote that a trial was necessary to assess whether Google’s exclusivity deals for web browsers and preloading its services on Android devices illegally helped the internet company maintain a monopoly. . But he said the government had not “demonstrated the necessary anticompetitive effect” to prove that Google violated the law in other ways, such as promoting its own products in search results over specialized sites, such as Amazon and Yelp.
The decision sets the stage for the first major technology monopoly trial since the federal government took Microsoft to court in the 1990s, amid renewed opposition to the tech giants’ power. In recent years, American regulators have filed lawsuits and tried to block acquisitions by companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, as they have grown in reach and size.
Several efforts by regulators to challenge the tech giants have failed. Twice this year, federal judges refused to grant requests by the Federal Trade Commission to halt tech deals, allowing Meta to close the purchase of a virtual reality start-up and clearing the way. for Microsoft’s blockbuster acquisition of video game publisher Activision Blizzard.
But the Google trial, set to begin Sept. 12, stands out as the government’s most direct attempt in years to confront one of the world’s largest technology companies over longstanding business practices. The trial is expected to last about 10 weeks and examine not only how Google conducts business but its relationships with other big companies, such as Apple and Samsung, which are largely shrouded in secrecy.
Bill Baer, a former Justice Department antitrust official, said the cases were as important as the landmark trial against Microsoft.
The outcome “will set an important precedent about whether these dominant tech platforms engage in conduct that limits competition and harms consumers,” he said.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, said in a statement Friday that the company appreciates Judge Mehta’s “careful consideration and decision to dismiss the claims about the design of Google Search.”
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google under President Donald J. Trump in 2020. It argues that the Silicon Valley company is taking advantage of its power over online search and the ads that appear in search results. The case was ultimately consolidated for trial in a separate case regarding Google search filed the same year by the attorneys general of 35 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.
The Justice Department has separately filed another antitrust case against Google, focused on the company’s software for serving ads across the web, which is headed to trial as soon as next year.
In his ruling, Judge Mehta allowed the core of the Justice Department’s case to stand. But he dismissed three of the agency’s claims about Google’s management of the Android operating system, its relationships with phone makers that use Android and its Google Assistant service. He also threw out a major claim brought by the states, which accused Google of giving top billing in its search results to its own products.
Judge Mehta acknowledged in his opinion that Google is very popular and cited the bar that government lawyers must clear to prove that it has violated antitrust rules.
It is not illegal for Google to have a monopoly on its own, he wrote, adding, “A company with monopoly power is acting illegally when its conduct impedes competition.”
In the trial, both sides are set to argue whether the company’s multibillion-dollar agreement to be the default search engine on various devices and browsers is anticompetitive, which could have significant consequences for its core business. Google’s search engine collected $162 billion in advertising revenue last year.
Google argued that these agreements with companies like Apple and Samsung were simple distribution deals common to business, and the government tried to punish Google for its popularity.
The agreements have been a linchpin in Google’s efforts to become accessible to large audiences. The company maintains an estimated 94 percent of search engine traffic on mobile devices, according to Similarweb, a data analysis firm.