Press Releases

08/05/2024

Attorney General Tong Statement on Decision in Google Antitrust Case

(Hartford, CT) –Attorney General William Tong released the following statement following today’s decision in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruling that Google illegally maintained an online monopoly in the online search market.

“As Judge Mehta writes in his decision, Google acted as a monopolist and was in direct violation of the Sherman Act by squeezing out other online search competitors and asserting an unlawful stranglehold on the market,” said Attorney General Tong. “This is a major antitrust victory, and as we begin the remedy phase of the case, we will work towards hopefully restoring a fair and free competitive online marketplace.”

Attorney General Tong and a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general – as well as the U.S. Department of Justice – filed lawsuits against Google for anticompetitive conduct in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act in late 2020. The DOJ and Multistate matters were heard together before Judge Mehta.

In the lawsuit, the states alleged that Google illegally used exclusionary agreements and other practices to limit the ability of rival general search engines and potential rivals to reach consumers, cementing Google as the go-to search engine on computers and mobile devices and denying them access to prime online real estate.

Click here to read the full decision.

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