Google's payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates US antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing a key victory to the Justice Department.
Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said that the Alphabet Inc. unit's $26 billion in payments effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market.
Antitrust enforcers alleged that Google has illegally maintained a monopoly over online search and related advertising. The government said that Google has paid Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and others billions over decades for prime placement on smartphones and web browsers. This default position has allowed Google to build up the most-used search engine in the world, and fueled more than $300 billion in annual revenue largely generated by search ads.
The case is the first antitrust trial pitting the federal government against a US technology company in more than two decades.
