Google is appealing a US district judge’s landmark antitrust ruling that found the company illegally held a monopoly on online search.
“As we’ve said for a long time, the Court’s decision in August 2024 ignores the fact that people use Google because they want to, not because they’re forced to,” Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said.
In its announcement on Friday, Google said Judge Amit Mehta’s decision did not account for the pace of innovation and intense competition the company faced.
The company has requested a halt to the implementation of a series of reforms – viewed by some observers as too lenient – aimed at limiting its monopoly power.
Judge Mehta acknowledged the rapid change in Google’s business when he released his remedies in September, writing that the emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) had changed the course of the case.
He refused to grant the government lawyers their request for a separate Google to include a spin-off of Chromethe most popular browser in the world.
Instead, he pushed for less stringent remedies, including a requirement that Google share certain data with “qualified competitors” as deemed by the court.
That data is due to include parts of its search index, Google’s massive inventory of web content that acts like an internet map.
The judge also called on Google to allow some competitors to display the tech giant’s search results as their own in a bid to give startups the time and resources they need to innovate.
On Friday, Mulholland refused to be forced to share data on the search and syndication service with opponents as he justified the request to stop the implementation of the orders.
“These orders will endanger Americans’ privacy and discourage competitors from developing their own products — ultimately stifling the innovation that keeps the U.S. at the forefront of global technology,” Mulholland wrote.
As the company invests increasing amounts of money in AI, these ambitions are under scrutiny.
Last month, the EU opened an investigation to Google because of the AI summaries that appear at the top of search results.
The European Commission said it will investigate whether Google used data from websites to provide the service and failed to offer appropriate compensation to publishers.
Google said the investigation risks stifling innovation in a competitive market.
This week, Google parent Alphabet became the fourth company to reach a market capitalization of $4tn.