Google logo on a building in New York

The decision comes after a 10-week trial that began in 2023 and stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and several states.

"After investigation, the court has concluded that Google is a monopoly and it has taken such actions to maintain its dominant position," Judge Amit P. Mehta said on August 5.

The plaintiffs accused Google of illegal actions to maintain its dominant position in the search industry, such as paying Samsung, Apple and Mozilla billions of dollars each year to be the “unauthorized default” search engine globally.

According to court documents, Google controls about 90% of the overall online search market and 95% of the smartphone market. The company spent about $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to ensure it was the default search engine across multiple platforms, thereby maintaining its market share.

One of the biggest recipients of Google’s money is Apple. According to court documents released earlier this year, Eddy Cue, senior vice president of services at Apple, said Google would spend $20 billion in 2022 on the company, equivalent to 17.5% of the iPhone maker’s operating income.

With this approach, Google easily dominates the search industry and benefits greatly in both revenue and data collection.

“Google receives billions of queries every day through those default access points. It collects vast amounts of user data from such searches and uses it to improve the quality of its queries,” the federal judge said.

If convicted, Google could be required to change the way it operates or even sell some of its businesses.

For its part, Google representatives responded to the court's ruling, saying that they "appreciate the court's decision that Google is a top quality search engine," and also confirmed that the company plans to appeal.