Google appeals US court ruling on search monopoly

Alphabet's Google on ​Friday appealed a Washington ​federal judge's ruling that it holds ​illegal monopolies in online search and related advertising.

Here are some details:

Google argued that U.S. Judge Amit Mehta ‌made legal errors ⁠in ⁠his 2024 ruling, which found the company illegally blocked ​competitors by paying billions of dollars annually to firms including ​Apple to be the default search engine on new devices.


The arrangements did not ​prevent the device makers and browser ⁠developers from ‌promoting rival search services ​like Microsoft's Bing, ​Google argued.

The company said ⁠it excelled in the market fairly by developing ​a "superior search engine through hard ​work, bold innovation, and shrewd business decisions."

The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to file papers making its own arguments in July. A spokesperson for the DOJ declined ‌to comment.

Mehta had ordered Google to share some search data ​with competitors, potentially ​including artificial ⁠intelligence companies such as OpenAI, to restore competition. An appeals court ruling in Google's favour would overturn that ​order.

If Google loses at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, it could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court