Google gets away almost scot-free in US search antitrust case
97 comments
·September 8, 2025ApolloFortyNine
matthewdgreen
If you’re a search engine competitor of Google’s, and Google owns the largest browser and mobile OS and pays the remaining browsers to make them the default, your business is vastly less likely to succeed. This holds even if customers could go out of their way to use your service. That’s what I understood this verdict to have determined. Unfortunately the remedy is bad and pointless, but that’s a separate matter.
heisenbit
If you are in the business of selling goods can you afford to walk away from Google? Remember you as consumer are not the customer but the product.
airspresso
Cutting Google accounts out of your life, however, is an entirely different undertaking that would take much longer and have a big impact on how you use the web.
bitpush
I dont understand. I can browse the internet using a non-Google computer, use a non-Google browser, go to a non-Google website, use a non-Google programming language etc etc.
Nobody, including Google, is stopping you from doing that.
Note, this is different from actual monopoly of railways (I have to use Central Pacific Railroad) or ISP (My city only has Comcast) or electricity (If I want electricity, I have to use PG&E).
The barometer is whether there's meaningful alternative. Can I do X without the $company in question = not a monopoly.
noosphr
>Note, this is different from actual monopoly of railways
You can ride a horse. Ergo, not a monopoly.
>ISP (My city only has Comcast)
You've got starlink. Not a monopoly.
throwawayqqq11
> i can ...
You are doing the same mistake PP did, projecting from yourself to others. Not everyone can do this or knows the resons why it is important.
If the search market was that flexible, it wouldnt really make sense to spend a fortune to become the default SE.
akagusu
I cannot use my bank app without Google Android. This it count like a monopoly?
bix6
Around half of all websites use Google analytics so good luck totally avoiding Google.
Just use an ad blocker. O wait all the chromium browsers just made that harder with manifest v3. 75% of browsers are chromium based?
I don’t think it’s fair to compare digital services to something like PGE. Fundamentally different.
Google lost the case. They just weren’t punished how they should’ve been.
Edit: wow and how could I forget 8.8.8.8 or google’s own transmission lines!
b_e_n_t_o_n
I did this and it's been great. Still use Google search because it's by far the best but I was using DDG for a while. It's not that difficult to de-Google.
scarface_74
I could completely cut Google out of my personal life with no ill effect. I can either use Apple’s iWork or Microsoft’s Office 365, I use ChatGPT as my default search engine now because Google has gotten so bad. I don’t use YouTube regularly except once a year to watch AWS Reinvent videos.
I use Safari on my Mac because Chrome is worse on battery life and doesn’t integrate as well with the rest of my digital life. I use Gmail. But at the end of the day, it’s just another one of my emails.
dbbk
The EU uses the term "Gatekeeper"
EricWF
What about the special access granted by many websites to the Google scraper?
null
null
mortoc
That's the wrong lens to use. Determine monopolies based on the view of a potential competitor.
Say I'm a new search engine startup that has some better tech than Google has, we invented a better wheel. How hard would it be to compete on merit?
scarface_74
That’s not how unfair monopolies are judged in the US. It’s based on harm to consumers.
As far as how hard is it to compete, it’s not the governments job to force people to use your alternate search engine. Choosing another search engine is literally just a click away.
bitpush
Exactly. It has never been easy to search stuff using non-Google search engines.
You like traditional search engines? Use bing, ddg.
You like AI powered ones? ChatGPT, Perplexity
You want to pay for your search? Kagi
You want to plant trees each you search (!)? Ecosia
There are soooo many choices. But people choosing Google out of free will seems to be a bad thing for Google.
siwakotisaurav
Antitrust in US seems more and more of a joke for every new one.
First few literally broke apart big companies, then we have Microsoft with “just don’t make IE default browser” and now basically nothing for google, forget selling off chrome now, not even banned from making search deals, just “maybe in a few years perhaps reconsider the search deals? Totally non binding tho”
thfuran
Google should be forced to spin off advertising.
bitpush
This is the kind of knee-jerk reaction that causes lawsuits to fail. There's always nuance, and if you're not willing to be detailed, dont be surprised when things dont go your way.
thfuran
That's the nuanced compromise. What should really happen is statutorily banning accepting remuneration for displaying or delivering third-party advertisement.
LarryDarrell
The writing was on the wall when Kamala Harris wouldn't commit to keeping Lina Khan at the FTC. We had some soft Anti-Trust action for the first time in decades, and the Trusts responded. If we get the chance to try again, we should be more clear eyed about what we are up against.
I've de-Googled my life as best I can, but I know how little it actually matters. Now that Google is clearly on the path of closing up Android, I hope the Linux phone effort gets reinvigorated.
thewebguyd
Unfortunately I don't think we're going to get the chance to try again. This, and Apple's upcoming case which they'll probably get off free as well, was our chance.
These companies are now even more emboldened, and with market caps bigger than the GDP of most countries, there is no one to stop them. Every politician has a number, and this administration has shown that open bribes are legal and expected.
Good luck prosecuting any big tech when they can pay billions of dollars to the administration to make anything go away.
lotsofpulp
It does not make any sense to compare market capitalization to GDP.
GDP is a measurement of flow within a certain timespan, market capitalization is a guess by the market of the total potential at a specific point in time.
daveguy
Wait, are you trying to blame this decision on Kamala Harris not pre-committing to keeping an anti-trust advocate in the FTC? I'm not sure if you noticed, but Kamala Harris is not president and never made these decisions about the FTC. I guarantee you her decisions would have been night and day better than the fraud currently inhabiting the whitehouse.
Maybe I'm just misinterpreting your words.
decremental
[dead]
ktosobcy
And at the same time behive mind here absurdly complain where others countries/unions want to reign the BigTech monopoly.
I kinda wish the EU would kick out google/facebok/x. It would hurt in the short term but would be way better in the long term…
And as the things look - US administration is incapable ot curbing their cancerish monopolies…
EasyMark
In most of these convos I usually see both sides with it being more heavily weighted to being corpo-friendly, but certainly individuals who are tired of monopolies and manipulations by oligopolies. So that's hardly a "beehive mind"
nashashmi
I’m still scratching my head how chrome and android divestment will help search business competition.
danans
Instead of the blunt hammer of disinvestment of brands, the government should be putting limits on Big Tech's ability to lock consumers and business into their platforms, whether via exclusive search deals, preventing alternative app stores, or hardware-tied communication networks. Those practices are ultimately what harms consumer choice. This decision only seems to address the first of those.
It seems that Big Tech's ingratiation of itself to the current administration using money and lent "credibility" is yielding their desired slaps on the wrists when a spanking was justified by the harm they have done to consumers.
EasyMark
Chrome is the most popular browser, if you disconnect that then you cut off google's guaranteed control of the default search engine. That's just a hunch though. Same with Android which is the most popular mobile OS in the world.
blasphemers
Microsoft has the most used operating system in the world with a default browser that defaults search to Bing. How is that working out? Being a default doesn't matter when the other options are better and easy to switch to.
bitpush
Lots of people use Google through non-Chrome browsers. For instance, on iOS the dominant browser is Safari.
What makes you think an independent "chrome" browser wont put Google Search as the default search engine?
Coffeewine
Presumably other search companies will be on a more even footing with google with regards to what they know about you to sell to advertisers if google doesn't also have your complete search history and a complete history of everything you do on your phone.
dizhn
I remember back in the day the case against Microsoft looked huge too. I don't remember the details but it "felt like" Bush Jr got elected president and that whole thing went away.
lapcat
There's a reason nobody remembers: the DoJ announced it was no longer seeking the breakup of Microsoft on September 6, 2001. A few days later, 9/11 occurred, and all other news was erased.
I'm not suggesting a conspiracy, by the way, just stating the facts.
xnx
Would have much preferred the US spent its time fixing the Comcast/Xfinity monopoly.
rudimentary_phy
I think the AI reasoning in the ruling has a little bit of truth to it. I have found myself using search quite a bit less. I'm still not sure what that means in the long run, but it does feel like times are changing.
When I do use Google, I end up using that crappy Gemini blurb at the top a lot more than I would like to admit as well, so they are definitely still prime contenders in the AI space even before looking at the Gemini platform itself. Even with all the things it gets wrong (the model in its search is definitely one of the worst), it is often more useful than not to me, and helps point me in the right direction more quickly.
This could all be just another repeat of the browser wars where Chrome overtook Firefox, but it isn't yet set in stone. Google definitely seems a little bit worried about the future with AI.
catigula
Any company that receives special federal protections should also be held partially or entirely in trust-ownership by the US government, not shareholders.
OutOfHere
Something tells me that Google and Meta get backroom deals by "virtue of" allowing their apps and Android to easily be hacked by governments. In particular, by keeping WhatsApp vulnerable, keeping Google Messages vulnerable, stopping the release of AOSP patches, etc.
null
ChrisArchitect
Anything here in this blog/linkspam that hasn't already been said last week?
More discussion:
Google can keep its Chrome browser but will be barred from exclusive contracts
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45108548
The worst possible antitrust outcome
In my opinion, the search 'monopoly' is just not the best poster child for antitrust cases in the US.
Perhaps the US is too lax on antitrust, but if you, literally anyone reading this, can stop using Google search on every device you own in the next 5 minutes, I just can't see that as a monopoly. Perhaps another word and legislation is required.
You can't even argue the network effect like you can with chat apps or social networks. You can literally cut Google search from your life forever before your lunch break is over.