Google is a monopoly, so what happens now?
A US federal court has ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain its monopoly on internet searches, something we have all known since at least 2015.
The ruling leaves no room for doubt, and should satisfy a Department of Justice that started the case during the Trump Administration, but more importantly, what now? In other words, what measures should be taken now that we know that Google took advantage of its position to prevent other companies from trying to compete with it?
Google has already announced that it will appeal the ruling, which will doubtless take years. Nevertheless, the verdict is going to have profound effects on the internet, because if a company is allowed to consolidate its position as Google has done over the last two decades, dismantling it will have consequences. For companies like Apple, for example, which long ago struck a deal with Google to make its search engine the default option on its devices, the verdict will surely mean the loss of no less than $19 billion a year. A very respectable amount that, although Apple is a very healthy company with a wide…
