Tech giants in court: will there finally be room for fair digital competition?

On September 2, 2025, a US court finally ruled on an important case concerning fair competition, or “antitrust law” in North American terms.

What was at stake?

In 2020, the US government filed a lawsuit to have Google broken up. This was because it had become too big – too dominant – in the online advertising market. Google itself pays billions annually to be the default search engine on browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox. According to evidence presented in these US proceedings, Google paid US$26.3 billion for those deals in 2021. According to the US government, it was necessary to severely limit Google’s power as a monopolist. So Google doesn’t pay to be the leader, but to be the only player, so that you and I (almost) have to use it as our search engine.

Who can compete with that much money?

Yes, that is only possible if the court rules on the basis of competition law and at the request of the US government (or US state) itself. The US government therefore wanted Google to lose its popular Chrome web browser so that it would become a separate company, i.e., separate from Google. In the proceedings, the US government also demanded that Google be forced to share even more data about its search results, arguing that this was crucial to eliminate or at least limit its dominant position.

What were the outcomes?

• Did Google have to spin off its Chrome web browser as a separate business unit? The answer is no. However, the US judge did impose restrictions on payments that Google uses to ensure that its search engine is given a prominent place on smartphones in web browsers. So the US judge did not go so far as to ban those payments entirely.
• Did Google have to hand over its search results and certain data to competing companies? The answer is yes.
• Does this concern all data from Google relating to those search queries? The answer is no. It concerns part of that search data.
• Did Google have to share its search results with every competitor? The answer is no, but only with companies that are “qualified competitors.” This will amount to the major market players.

The ruling of September 2, 2025, comes at a time when generative artificial intelligence threatens to replace traditional search engines. AI startups such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity have now developed human-like chatbots that can answer questions, summarize vast amounts of research, and even plan a trip with step-by-step suggestions. Google has already placed its own AI answers at the top of its search results and added a tab to its search results page where users can converse with a chatbot about their question. So it remains to be seen to what extent sharing data about search results will help “qualified competitors.”

Conclusion

Google must therefore hand over its search results and certain data to competing companies. But Google does not have to split itself up. And restrictions will be imposed on financial purchases to be the only search engine in a browser.

The ruling of September 2, 2025, is the first monopoly case brought by the government against a modern tech giant. That ruling may set the tone for other antitrust cases in which large tech companies are accused of abuse of power, particularly against Google.

In April 2025, another US judge (in Virginia) ruled that Google had a monopoly on certain types of advertising technology, the software system that marketers use to place ads on websites. The Texas government wants the court to force Google to split off part of that system. Google says it should be required to change the internal policies that have strengthened its dominant position. The judge in that case will consider measures during a two-week hearing in September 2025.

Google also faces another antitrust case over its advertising technology in Texas. In this case, the company is accused of maintaining its dominant position at the expense of news publishers who sell advertising space using its products.

Lawsuits

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, will receive a ruling from a judge in the fall of 2025 in a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (comparable to the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and the European Commission) over allegations that the social media giant has eliminated its emerging competitors. An FTC lawsuit against Amazon over allegations that it squeezed out small retailers is scheduled for 2027. The US Department of Justice has also sued Apple for making it difficult for consumers to replace its devices. The outcomes in the US will be closely monitored by the EU Commission, which recently fined tech giant Google €2.95 billion for abusing its dominant position in online advertising technology. The Commission argued that Google favored its own advertising services in the market, which harmed competition. Apple was also fined for failing to comply with the anti-steering obligations of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which prevented developers from directing their customers to cheaper alternatives outside the App Store.

Questions?

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