Google Appeals Ruling in U.S. Antitrust Search Case

Google announced late Friday that it has appealed the ruling in U.S. v. Google (Search) and has asked the appeals court to pause some of the imposed remedies until the process is complete.

“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,” Google vice president Lee-Anne Mulholland writes. “The decision failed to account for the rapid pace of innovation and intense competition we face from established players and well-funded start-ups. And it discounted compelling testimony from browser makers like Apple and Mozilla who said they choose to feature Google because it provides the highest quality search experience for their consumers.”

Google lost U.S. v. Google (Search) in epic fashion in August 2024, with U.S. district court judge Amit Mehta ruling that the online giant held and abused an illegal monopoly in search. But when it came to the remedy phase of the case, judge Mehta coughed up a hairball despite the mountains of evidence of abuse and required no major behavioral changes from Google.

That makes this appeal a bit puzzling given that Google received a best case remedy. Google is required to halt exclusive search contracts, share “certain search index and user-interaction data, though not ads data” with competitors, and help competitors deliver high–quality search results and ads so that they can better compete with the company while they develop their own systems.

Google does not want to do any of that.

“We’re asking to pause the implementation of specific remedies that would force us to share search data and provide syndication services to rivals,” Mulholland explains. “These mandates would risk Americans’ privacy and discourage competitors from building their own products — ultimately stifling the innovation that keeps the U.S. at the forefront of global technology. We look forward to making our case in court later this year.”