economy
Courts have become a key battleground over the power of big technology firms.
Google is the company a US federal judge ruled had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search in 2024. The landmark ruling found that Google had violated antitrust law, focusing heavily on the company's practice of paying to secure default search engine placement on devices and browsers, arrangements the court found had helped entrench its dominant market position in a way that unlawfully shut out potential competitors.
Amazon and Meta have faced their own separate antitrust scrutiny and legal challenges over different aspects of their businesses, but neither was the subject of this specific 2024 ruling concerning monopoly power in online search.
Because default settings shape so much of ordinary user behavior, since most people simply use whatever search engine comes pre-installed on their device, the case highlighted how a seemingly small default choice made once during a device's setup can translate into enormous, durable market power over time.
economy
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