Skip to main content
Big Tech

Big tech faces big regulation

The antitrust ruling opens the door to severe consequences for all of big tech.
article cover

Leonardo Munoz/Getty Images

less than 3 min read

Making sense of market moves

Stay up to date on the latest market news with daily analysis of the investing landscape, served up Brew-style.

During a crazy Monday featuring a massive market implosion, you may have missed a huge ruling that could significantly affect the way big tech operates for years to come.

A federal judge ruled that Google operates as an illegal monopoly, arguing that the company suppresses its competitors in an effort to maintain its hegemony. Judge Amit Mehta ruled in favor of the Department of Justice, writing unequivocally: “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

The ruling was perhaps the most pivotal antitrust victory since the 1990s, when regulators almost successfully broke up Microsoft. Yesterday’s ruling means Google could get away with simply paying a fine and receiving a reprimand—or it could open the door for regulators to break up the company, which is admittedly very unlikely, according to analysts. Google is appealing the ruling, and it could take months or years to play out in court.

Other big tech heavyweights are currently facing similar antitrust scrutiny, and the Google ruling could influence the decisions on the cases regulators have brought against Apple, Amazon, and Meta Platforms. Regulators assert that these tech companies have acted as monopolies by favoring their own products on their platforms, as well as acquiring smaller rivals, extinguishing competition.

How will these cases affect big tech? While the Google ruling is a major symbolic victory for antitrust regulators, some say it is too late to make a dent in the tech behemoth’s search dominance.

“I have yet to hear any compelling logic about how Google’s search operation could be split up in a way that would bring more competition to online search,” wrote Bloomberg tech columnist Dave Lee of the ruling.

Investors seemed relatively unconcerned. While Alphabet stock fell along with the rest of US stocks yesterday, it finished virtually flat today.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives maintained his “outperform” rating on Google in the wake of the ruling, explaining that, “We do not expect any disruption to Google's near-term operations as a result of this ruling.”—LB

Making sense of market moves

Stay up to date on the latest market news with daily analysis of the investing landscape, served up Brew-style.