What you need to know
- It’s been reported that Google has appealed a ruling made by U.S. Judge Amit Mehta in 2024 that said it was found guilty of an “illegal search monopoly.”
- Google reportedly stated in its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that it obtained the top spot through “hard work” and “bold innovation.”
- Other reports claim that Google is also looking to remove the “solutions” in place to solve its monopoly, such as the need to share search data with rival companies like OpenAI.
It’s been two years since we were last absorbed in Google’s antitrust issues over search, and now the company is bringing it back with a major appeal.
Reuters reports that Google has filed an official appeal of U.S. Judge Amit Mehta’s 2024 ruling. As previously stated, the publication reports that Google, in its appeal, said that Judge Mehta made “legal errors” in their ruling about a “search monopoly” two years ago. What Google has done is taken its stance firmly this time.
According to reports, Google said it achieved its top spot in the search space by creating a search engine people enjoy through “hard work, bold innovation, and shrewd business decisions.”
A post by MacRumors chimes in, citing similar occurrences in Google’s latest appeal against Judge Mehta’s 2024 ruling. The post states that while the company would like the ruling to be tossed, it wants to get rid of the “solutions” or “remedies” put in place to address its search monopoly. There’s one area in particular that Google is focusing on, and that’s AI companies, like OpenAI. MacRumors states that Google’s stance on this is as follows: “AI products did not even exist during the period covered in the DoJ’s filing.”
With that, it would like to outright avoid divulging any search data to companies dealing in generative AI. Google has submitted its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As Reuters states, if the company gets stopped at the door there, its other option would be the U.S. Supreme Court.
A storied history
We’d have to take a brief walk down memory lane to refocus on this situation, which saw a landmark ruling brought down in August 2024. It was a major blow against Google when Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that the company “acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly by securing itself as a default on devices.” Mehta added, “For years, Google has secured default placements through distribution contracts.” It was stated at this time by Google’s president of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, that the company would look to appeal.
A few days later, the DOJ wasn’t done, as it said it might look for ways to solve this search monopoly Google found itself in. One of those solutions could’ve involved breaking up the company (Android and Chrome, specifically). However, another avenue involved pushing Google to share more data with the competition. In September 2025, Judge Mehta delivered a ruling that let Google keep its assets, but restricted “exclusive deals.”
Instead, Google was forced to “share search data with competitors,” which is one of the catalysts behind its appeal this year.
Android Central’s Take
What’s interesting about this appeal is that we’re likely going to be hearing about this for a while—again. On one hand, I can say that Google had the “best case” scenario. It didn’t have to break apart Android and Chrome. It got to keep them. All it had to do was share its search data. Even that, though, hasn’t sat well with the company. I think a major itch was that it had to share data with an AI company, and Google probably doesn’t want a rival bot trained using its data. Whatever the case may be, we’ll need to see how the U.S. government responds.
