Google's antitrust ruling has experts looking to 25-year-old Microsoft case for answers

In ruling Monday that Googlehas held a monopoly in internet search, U.S. judge Amit Mehta invoked the company at the center of the most famous tech antitrust case in U.S. history: Microsoft.

A federal judge determined in 1999 that Microsoft had illegally used the market power of its Windows operating system to box out rival browsers, namely Netscape Navigator. A settlement in 2001 forced the software giant to stop disadvantaging competitors in its PC deals.

Google's landmark case, filed by the government in 2020, alleged that the company has kept its share of the search market by creating strong barriers to entry and a feedback loop that sustained its dominance. The court found that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which outlaws monopolies.

"The end result here is not dissimilar from the Microsoft court's conclusion as to the browser market," Mehta wrote in his 300-page ruling. "Just as the agreements in that case help[ed] keep usage of Navigator below the critical level necessary for Navigator or any other rival to pose a real threat to Microsoft's monopoly, Google's distribution agreements have constrained the query volumes of its rivals, thereby inoculating Google against any genuine competitive threat."

Mehta said one key similarity is the "power of the default." For Google, that refers to its search position on Apple's iPhone and Samsung devices — deals that cost the company billions of dollars a year in payouts.

"Users are free to navigate to Google's rivals through non-default search access points, but they rarely do," Mehta wrote.

Mehta said a separate trial will take place on Sept. 4, to determine the remedies, or penalties against Google. At that point, Google can appeal, a process that experts said