Google Judge Eyes August for Decision on Remedy in Monopoly Case

The federal judge who recently found that Google illegally monopolized the search market said he wants to deliver a decision on remedies by August.

Judge Amit Mehta pushed back on the government’s request to give it more time to share with the Alphabet Inc. unit its proposed recommendations for bringing competition back to the market. He asked at a hearing Friday in Washington that the Justice Department file its proposed remedies by the end of the year to give Google a fair chance to respond.

“Google needs to know precisely what plaintiffs want. That needs to be both precise and detailed,” Mehta said.

After a 10-week trial, Mehta concluded in August that Google blocked out competition through exclusive deals that involved $26 billion in payments mostly to Apple Inc. to make its search engine the default on smartphones and web browsers. Those distribution agreements allowed Google to corner the market and keep raising prices for online advertising, Mehta said.

Google has said it plans to appeal the decision.

The Justice Department had asked Mehta to file suggestions for remedies in February after it could gather more facts. Its proposed schedule stretches into April when it requested an evidentiary hearing.

David Dahlquist, a Justice Department attorney, said during the hearing that the government wants to find out how Google plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its search engine and what the company has done with its distribution contracts.

John Schmidtlein, an attorney for Google, said the company would likely seek information on Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI. Google earlier offered to submit its proposed remedies on Oct. 11 and asked that the Justice Department be required to file its recommendations on Sept. 20.

Mehta has given the parties until next Friday to come up with a proposed schedule for the remedies trial.

It’s unclear which remedies the government will seek. Bloomberg previously reported that the Justice Department is weighing whether to recommend a breakup of Google, which would mark the first attempt to dismantle a company for monopolization since its failure to break apart Microsoft two decades ago. If the judge approves of a breakup, it would be the biggest of a US company since the dismantling of AT&T in the 1980s.

The government is likely to ask for a ban on the types of exclusive contracts that were featured in the trial. It could also ask for less severe measures than a breakup, including a requirement for Google to share more data with competitors.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Sabrina Willmer in Washington at swillmer2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net

Elizabeth Wasserman, Peter Blumberg

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission.