The dreaded September slope will be particularly steep for Google , which next month faces three important court dates that could have far-reaching consequences for the future of the Mountain View company.
September 6th is the first date marked in red on Google's calendar. A hearing will be held in a federal court in Washington on that day to assess the specific consequences for the company of a landmark ruling issued earlier this month by Judge Amit Mehta, which wordpress web design agency concluded that Google was a monopoly and had systematically broken antitrust laws to build an empire of search services and online advertising. Judge Mehta thus sided with the plaintiff, the US Department of Justice, which will now be able to propose measures to put obstacles in the way of Google's illegal monopoly . These measures will be discussed at the hearing on September 6th. The internet giant intends to appeal the ruling.
Just three days later, on September 9, another antitrust trial against Google will begin in the state of Virginia , with the US Department of Justice and several states acting as plaintiffs. The lawsuit, filed in January 2023 , accuses Google of abusing its dominant position in the advertising technology sector and deliberately undermining its rivals in this area of activity.
On September 10 , the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) will decide whether or not the €2.4 billion fine imposed by the European Commission on Google is in compliance with the law . In 2017, after an investigation that lasted seven years, the European Commission concluded that Google had favoured its product comparison engine Google Shopping over competitors on its search engine. The company subsequently appealed the fine. Its appeal was, however, rejected by the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) in November 2021 and the fine imposed on Google was upheld , which in any case appealed the decision again. Now it will be up to the CJEU to decide in the final instance whether or not the fine imposed on the Mountain View company is legal.
Google has a lot at stake in its upcoming court dates. According to The New York Times and Bloomberg , the US Department of Justice is reportedly considering taking drastic measures to crack down on Google's monopolistic practices . And as a result, the Android operating system, the Chrome browser and Google's advertising business could be spun off from the company. The Google split, which many have been calling for for years, is looking more likely than ever to become a reality.
Beyond the fragmentation of its business, Google may also be forced to cede some of its search-focused business data to competitors and cancel exclusive contracts with third parties to provide prominent positioning for its products in browsers and on smartphones (although this last measure may not be in compliance with the law).
Google emphasizes that its dominant market position is anchored in the superior quality of its products. “The ruling acknowledges that Google offers the best search engine, but simultaneously concludes that the company should not be allowed to make it so easily accessible,” explains Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs at Alphabet, in X.
Google pays billions of dollars to companies such as Apple, Samsung and Mozilla to ensure that its products are installed by default on third-party services. In 2021 alone, the American multinational paid $26.3 billion to third parties to give its products a privileged position. This is by no means a trivial figure if we take into account that Alphabet Group, Google's parent company, generated profits of $74 billion last year.
Many experts do not believe that Google is actually headed for a breakup of its business . However, others, such as legal expert Thomas Höppner , believe that there is indeed a real possibility that Google's business will end up breaking up.
The upcoming legal decisions that Google will face in the United States will shed more light on the true extent of the Mountain View company's monopoly. The CJEU ruling will be of particular significance, as it concerns a legal battle that has been ongoing for 14 years and which some legal experts refer to as "the mother of all antitrust trials."