Proactive Investors - Google moved closer to the next stage in the second of two monopoly trials being pursued by the US Department of Justice.
Closing courtroom arguments were made on Monday in the case that the Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) company is facing against its advertising technology (ad tech) arm.
US District Court judge Leonie Brinkema is expected to make a ruling by the end of 2024.
If Google's system is judged to be a monopoly, a second trial to work out potential remedies will follow, a process that is already underway in a separate district court case over Google's search arm.
In the search case, last week the DoJ proposed a partial breakup of Google, seeking a court order for the company to sell its Chrome browser.
This following a ruling from Judge Amit Mehta that Google violated antitrust laws through its search business.
The divestment of Chrome was one of a series of remedies proposed by the government in a court filing last Wednesday aimed at stopping the tech giant from maintaining its monopoly in online search, with a call for Mehta to prevent Google from forming contracts with the likes of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung (KS:005930) to make its search engine the default choice on smartphones and internet browsers.
Google is expected to counter with its own proposed remedies by December 20.
A final ruling from Meta (NASDAQ:META) is expected by August 2025.
Will Trump's return change things?
Both actions by the DoJ, in combination with multiple US states, represent a major push to address monopolistic practices in technology, potentially disrupting Google’s interconnected services and reshaping how users access information online.
The DoJ is also pursuing a case against Apple, while the US Federal Trade Commission is suing Meta Platforms and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Many cases against Big Tech began during President-elect Donald Trump's first term in the White House.
But, along with his new alliance with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk, Trump has expressed skepticism about a potential Google breakup.
"If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it's more fair," he said at a pre-election event in Chicago.
Legal experts have suggested the DoJ and Federal Trade Commission would be likely to review guidelines on mergers brought in during the Biden administration.