Google to appeal antitrust ruling over its dominance in search

Google confirmed it plans to appeal a US federal court ruling that found it to be a monopoly in the search engine market. In a statement on X, the company said the US Justice Department's proposals go too far and "harm consumers."

The antitrust case against Google was opened back in 2020. The Ministry of Justice demanded that the company open licenses for search technologies, prohibit agreements with device manufacturers to install Google by default, and sell the Chrome browser and the Chromium project.

Judge Amit Mehta found Google guilty of abusing its monopoly power in August 2024. According to the court, owning Chrome gave the company an unfair advantage — Google could direct traffic to its own search engine and increase profits.

Google warns that the proposed changes could create risks to user privacy and hand over control of data to the government. Instead, the company is proposing to loosen its contracts with device manufacturers and create an independent oversight body.

The case could also have implications for the AI market, which is closely tied to search. During the hearing, OpenAI CEO Nick Turley said the company was interested in buying Chrome if Google was forced to sell it. In addition to OpenAI, Yahoo, which has a complicated history with Google, has also made similar statements.