Thread by @AAGSlater

🚨MAJOR NEWS🚨

Today, a court issued remedies in a major antitrust case against Google’s unlawful monopolization of internet search and search advertising. This is an important step in a key antitrust case the Department of Justice has pursued since the first Trump administration.

We proved in court that competition had been frozen in place for two decades in internet search. Google’s tactics have excluded competition, harming consumers and slowing innovation. Today’s remedy order agreed with the need to restore competition to the long-monopolized search market, and we are now weighing our options and thinking through whether the ordered relief goes far enough in serving that goal.

🧵 Read on to learn more. 1/9

Most people know that Google is the dominant internet search engine. They know that it has the power to control the flow of information, censor and deplatform users, and bend commerce to its advantage.

But fewer know that for over a decade, Google has frozen competition out of the search market. Google maintained its monopoly by making sure no one else had a chance to compete.

That’s fundamentally contrary to the American values of free market competition that our economy is built on. 2/9

The first Trump Administration brought the case in 2020. First, the case unified the country, with 49 states and the District of Columbia joining the prosecution. Then, a federal court agreed with us that Google broke the laws against monopolization that have supported our economy for over a century. 3/9

And now Google is being held accountable. The court didn’t order all of our requested relief, and we are weighing our options. But the court did agree with the need for remedies that will restore competition and reopen the digital playing field, driving investment and innovation that will ensure America leads the next era of technology.

Here’s some of what the judge has ordered to change:

▪️Google will be barred from entering or maintaining any exclusive contract that locks up distribution and excludes innovative rivals to Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or the Gemini App

▪️Google’s exclusionary contracts have long deprived rivals of the data they need to compete. Now, Google will be forced to make search data available to new competitors in order to deprive it of the advantages of a decade of monopolization.

▪️Google will open up syndication of search results to qualified competitors, helping new entrants gain a foothold in the search market and build innovative new services.

4/9

Importantly, the court also recognized the key inflection point we are in with the development of AI. The court gave a leg up to the United States in the global AI race, preventing Google from slowing down AI innovation with the same anticompetitive playbook it used to freeze search competition. 5/9

It’s critical we get this right. This case continues a legacy of antitrust enforcement dating back a century to the original trustbuster Teddy Roosevelt. By restoring competition to monopolized markets, antitrust enforcement keeps the free markets free, driving progress and prosperity. It worked in the oil and steel industries a century ago, it worked in telephones and computers after the AT&T and Microsoft cases, and we have to make it work for internet search today. 6/9

The United States will not tolerate the abuse of power by digital monopolies.

Markets should be free, not manipulated or regulated by digital tyrants.

This is the American way.

President Trump directed us to Make America Competitive Again, and that’s what we are doing.

7/9

I am deeply grateful to the career staff that made this case possible and worked tirelessly over the last six years to make today happen. This was the largest monopolization case in a generation. And we won it the right way: with facts, law and perseverance.

While the court didn’t order every form of relief the United States sought, it ordered far more significant remedies that Google believed appropriate. Make no mistake: the relief ordered so far is a major win for the American people. The Department will be considering its options and weighing next steps regarding seeking additional relief.

8/9

Under President Trump’s leadership, the Justice Department is Making America Competitive Again. My thanks for the support of @AGPamBondi and @DAGToddBlanche, without whom today’s victory could not have been possible.

We’re not done, either. This case is historic. Tomorrow, we keep going to defend the free markets from the tyranny of regulations that exclude entrepreneurs and innovators, whether imposed by government regulation or powerful monopolists.

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