DOJ, States Appeal Google Antitrust Remedies Ruling

The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states filed notices on Tuesday to appeal a federal judge's decision imposing limited remedies on Alphabet's Google following its 2024 conviction for maintaining an illegal monopoly in online search. The appeal, lodged with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, targets the remedies ordered by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, which rejected demands for structural changes like divesting key assets.

In August 2024, Judge Mehta ruled that Google had violated antitrust laws through exclusionary agreements that stifled competition in the search market, including multibillion-dollar deals to serve as the default search engine on devices from Apple and others. The decision marked a significant victory for antitrust enforcers after a trial that examined Google's practices in search and advertising. Prosecutors, representing the Justice Department and attorneys general from multiple states, argued that these arrangements entrenched Google's dominance, which controls about 90 percent of the U.S. search market.

The case then entered a remedies phase lasting over a year, during which witnesses from...