“Plaintiffs Over-Reached”: Alphabet Shares Soar After Judge Rules In Antitrust Case

Alphabet, the parent of Google, shares are soaring after hours following a favorable ruling from the federal judge in its anti-trust case.

As a reminder, following a 10-week non-jury trial in 2023, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last year that Google violated US antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly with its online search business.

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in the ruling at the time.

Today we find out the remedies, and they are definitely in Alphabet’s favor.

US District Judge Amit Mehta, in a 230-page ruling on Friday, barred Google from having exclusive contracts for its Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, and the Gemini app products as part of his remedy to the more than $2 trillion company’s monopoly in search.

But the ruling fell far short of some of the most contentious demands from the US government.

Mehta said Google would not have to divest from Chrome or Android.

“Plaintiffs overreached in seeking forced divesture of these key assets, which Google did not use to effect any illegal restraints,” Mehta wrote in the Tuesday ruling.

Additionally, Mehta ruled that Google must hand over its search results and some of its data to rival companies

In another win for Google, the judge didn’t bar the company from making payments to third parties for default browser placement.

“Cutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantial — in some cases, crippling — downstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban,” the judge wrote.

Alphabet shares jumped more than 6% in after-hours trading.

BI reports that in an opening statement during the remedies hearing, a Justice Department lawyer said the court must prevent Google from using its search monopoly to dominate the AI market.

“Unless Google’s vast payments are eliminated, Google will likely win each search distribution opportunity, given the tremendous advantages it has accrued from over 10 years of monopoly maintenance,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a post-trial May court filing.

Google has vowed to appeal Mehta’s original ruling deeming the tech giant a monopolist – and it could be years before there’s a final outcome.

Meanwhile, Google still has more antitrust headaches ahead.

A Virginia federal judge ruled in April that the company holds an illegal monopoly in certain online advertising technology markets. A remedies hearing in that case is set to begin in September.