James hails court victory against Google

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday welcomed a ruling by the US District Court for the District of Columbia finding that Google has maintained an illegal monopoly of online search engines.

James co-led a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general in suing Google, in conjunction with a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice, over its monopolistic activities. 

“This decision is a major victory in our efforts to ensure all companies, no matter how powerful or influential, are held accountable when they harm others,” James said. “For too long, Google has used its power to limit consumer choice in search, paying billions to ensure its competitors had no path to succeed, and profiting enormously from its monopoly. 

“As Attorney General, I will not allow any business or corporation to take advantage of New Yorkers and exploit their position to grow their influence,” she added. 

In 2020, Attorney General James co-led a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general in suing Google for its illegal, anticompetitive conduct. 

The lawsuit alleged that Google entered into exclusionary contracts with other tech companies, like Apple and Samsung, to ensure that its search engine was the exclusive default on the vast majority of devices. 

Monday’s decision found that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, finding that Google maintained a monopoly power over general search services and general search text ads.

The court also ruled that Google’s distribution agreements with other tech companies are exclusive and have anticompetitive effects.

Through a series of exclusionary contracts and other anticompetitive conduct, James said Google has deprived consumers of competition that could lead to greater choice and innovation, as well as better privacy protections.

Attorney General James and the coalition also accused Google of exploiting its market position to accumulate and leverage data to the detriment of consumers – “all in an effort to control the market and make billions in profits.” 

“Google sits at the crossroads of so many areas of our digital economy and has used its dominance to illegally squash competitors, monitor nearly every aspect of our digital lives, and profit to the tune of billions,” she said. “Through its illegal conduct, the company has ensured that hundreds of millions of people turn to Google first when looking for an answer, but it doesn’t take a web search to understand that unchecked corporate power shouldn’t have disproportionate control over our data and information. 

“For decades now, Google has served as the gatekeeper of the internet and has weaponized our data to kill off competitors and control our decision making — resulting in all of us paying more for the services we use every day,” she added. 

James said Google dominates the search market on the Internet, but, over time, has also “vastly expanded its products to include online advertising technologies, cloud computing, software, and hardware, among other areas.”

The states’ complaint alleged that Google has left behind its tech-startup origins and built itself into “a web-ecosystem behemoth, maintaining its monopolies using multiple forms of anticompetitive conduct in the general search and search advertising-related markets.”

Attorney General James and the coalition had argued that that Google has maintained its dominance using three main strategies: Exclusionary Agreements, Discriminating Against Specialized Search Sites and Disadvantaging Competitors Using its Search-Engine Marketing Tool. 

“Google’s illegal conduct has impeded competitive threats, limiting the ability of consumers and advertisers to obtain information and make their own choices,” James said. 

The attorneys general argued in their complaint that more competition in the general search engine market would benefit consumers, for example, through improved privacy protections and more targeted results and opportunities for consumers. 

They also argued that competitive general search engines could offer better quality advertising and lower prices to advertisers, which would be expected to flow through to consumers. 

The attorneys general said Google’s acquisition and command of vast amounts of data — obtained in increasing part because of consumers’ lack of choice — has “fortified Google’s monopoly and created significant barriers for potential competitors and innovators.”