Google is set to face a pivotal legal challenge on Monday as the U.S. government pushes to dismantle parts of the company, arguing that it has transformed its once-innovative search engine into an oppressive monopoly.
Over the next three weeks, a Washington courtroom will host what’s known as a “remedy hearing,” where both sides will present arguments over how to penalize Google for violating antitrust laws. Witnesses, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, are expected to testify, UNB reports.
The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal judge to impose sweeping measures, including banning Google from securing multibillion-dollar partnerships with companies like Apple that help entrench its search dominance. The government also wants Google to share its user data with rivals and divest from its widely used Chrome browser.
This critical phase follows more than four years after the Justice Department initially sued Google, accusing it of exploiting its dominance in the online search market to suppress competition and innovation.
In a key ruling last year, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Google had engaged in anticompetitive practices, particularly by locking its search engine into popular platforms such as iPhones, PCs, and Android devices. That verdict now sets the stage for determining what corrective steps the company must take.
Since its humble origins in a garage in 1998, Google has grown into a tech giant with major influence across email, mapping, video, browsing, smartphone software, and cloud infrastructure.
Building on its legal victory, the Justice Department now argues that dramatic changes are essential to curbing Google’s market control and that of its parent company, Alphabet Inc.
“Google’s illegal conduct has created an economic goliath, one that wreaks havoc over the marketplace to ensure that — no matter what occurs — Google always wins,” the Justice Department stated in documents detailing its proposed remedies. “The American people thus are forced to accept the unbridled demands and shifting, ideological preferences of an economic leviathan in return for a search engine the public may enjoy.”
Although the proposed penalties originated under President Joe Biden’s administration, they remain supported under President Donald Trump, whose first term saw the filing of the original case. Since then, the Justice Department has framed Google’s dominance as not just an economic threat, but also one to civil liberties.
“The American dream is about higher values than just cheap goods and ‘free’ online services," the department argued in a March 7 court filing. “These values include freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom to innovate, and freedom to compete in a market undistorted by the controlling hand of a monopolist."
Google, however, contends that the proposed remedies go too far and aren’t justified by the court’s findings. The company claims that its success stems from user preference, not monopolistic behavior.
“The ‘unprecedented array of proposed remedies would harm consumers and innovation, as well as future competition in search and search ads in addition to numerous other adjacent markets,” Google’s legal team wrote. “They bear little or no relationship to the conduct found anticompetitive, and are contrary to the law.”
The company also raised concerns over potential risks associated with the remedies, particularly the requirements to share search data and possibly divest Chrome. “The breadth and depth of the proposed remedies risks doing significant damage to a complex ecosystem. Some of the proposed remedies would imperil browser developers and jeopardize the digital security of millions of consumers."
This legal showdown is considered the most significant U.S. antitrust battle since the 1990s when Microsoft faced similar charges for leveraging Windows to suppress competition. That case ended with a judge ordering a partial breakup of Microsoft — a remedy later overturned on appeal.
While Google plans to appeal Mehta’s decision labeling its search business as an illegal monopoly, it cannot do so until the current remedy hearings conclude. Closing arguments are scheduled for late May, and Mehta is expected to issue a final decision by Labor Day.
The case against Google’s search business is one of several high-profile antitrust actions targeting major tech firms. Meta, the parent of Facebook and Instagram, is currently defending itself against monopoly accusations in a separate Washington D.C. trial. Apple and Amazon have also come under similar scrutiny.
Meanwhile, another recent ruling in a separate case found Google guilty of abusing its power in the digital advertising space — a decision that will lead to yet another remedy hearing, possibly later this year or in early 2026, again raising the possibility of a company breakup.
