Google monopoly ruling is just one of many antitrust cases now facing Big Tech

By Lukas I. Alpert

Apple, Meta and Amazon all also face government efforts to rein in their influence over the market

A federal judge's ruling on Monday that Google operates an illegal monopoly over online search is just the opening salvo in a wide-ranging antitrust effort by the U.S. government to rein in the power of Big Tech.

Silicon Valley's biggest tech giants - including Apple Inc. (AAPL), Meta Platforms Inc. (META) and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) - all also have government lawsuits pending that accuse them of operating in anticompetitive ways. And Alphabet Inc.'s Google (GOOGL) (GOOG) still faces a separate case brought by the Justice Department that accuses it of abusing a monopoly over certain aspects of online advertising.

The investigations by the DOJ, the Federal Trade Commission and numerous states' attorneys general into these tech companies' practices date back to the Trump administration, but kicked into high gear after Joe Biden became president and are only now approaching their climax.

Here's where the cases against Big Tech stand.

Amazon.com

Last year, the FTC and 17 states' attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, accusing it of using strategies that stifle competition on price and product selection and severely limit the possibility of real competition to ever arise.

The suit argues that Amazon punished retailers that attempted to offer lower prices than Amazon itself does, and claims it gave unfair benefits to sellers that utilized Amazon's shipping services.

Amazon has argued that the suit, which was brought in federal court in Seattle, is "wrong on the facts and the law" and has vowed to fight, asking a judge to toss the case out. A trial date has been set for October 2026.

The online retail giant also faces a separate case brought by the FTC that accuses it of making it unduly complicated for customers to cancel using Amazon's Prime service.

Meta

The social-media giant was among the first of the Big Tech companies to face legal pressure from the government, becoming the target of a 2020 FTC lawsuit accusing it of engineering a monopoly by buying any competitors that threatened the dominance of Facebook.

The suit argued that the company's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp denied users the ability to genuinely choose which social-media company they wanted to use, as they all were owned by the same corporation.

Meta has countered that it didn't buy Instagram and WhatsApp a decade ago to stifle competition and has argued for the case to be thrown out.

In 2021, the judge handling the case did throw out the complaint, arguing that the FTC hadn't adequately defined the market that had been harmed by Facebook's acquisition spree. But he allowed the government to refile its complaint the following year and it has carried on.

Apple

In March, the Justice Department and 16 states sued Apple, accusing it of blocking competition in the smartphone market by preventing competitors from offering their products to Apple customers.

The case came after a five-year investigation and argued that Apple used its dominant position in the market for smartphones and servicing apps to prevent customers from switching phones or using non-Apple products on their iPhones.

Apple has argued that the DOJ's suit is a misguided attempt to recreate its success in an antitrust suit against Microsoft a quarter-century earlier.

Google

Separate from Monday's ruling that found that Google functioned as a broad monopoly over online search, the tech giant also faces another DOJ suit that accuses it of operating a monopoly in the online-advertising market.

The suit accuses Google of cementing its dominance over online ads through a series of acquisitions and of bullying publishers and other online customers into using its ad products. The DOJ calls for breaking up Google's online-advertising business, which generates approximately 80% of the company's revenue.

Google has argued that it faces stiff competition in online advertising from several other companies including Meta, Amazon and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), and so isn't a monopoly at all.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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08-05-24 1930ET

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