Google has formally appealed a landmark U.S. antitrust ruling that found the company unlawfully maintained dominance over the online search market, escalating a legal battle that could reshape how the world’s largest search engine operates and how competitors access critical data.
The appeal challenges an August 2024 decision by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who concluded that Google preserved its search monopoly through exclusionary practices rather than consumer choice. The ruling marked the most significant antitrust loss for Google in its history and placed its core business model under judicial scrutiny.
At the center of Google’s appeal is the argument that the court failed to reflect how users actually select search engines in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving digital ecosystem.
“As we have long said, the Court’s August 2024 ruling ignored the reality that people use Google because they want to, not because they’re forced to,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs.
