Google appeals search monopoly ruling, says it won business 'fair and square'

Google filed an appeal challenging a federal ruling that found it an illegal search monopolist. The appeal targets both the August 2024 decision on anticompetitive conduct and the September 2025 remedies decision ordering data sharing with competitors. Google argues the court incorrectly concluded its search distribution agreements were anticompetitive, claiming rivals were simply less preferred by users. Google also contends the remedies exceeded judicial discretion, including orders to boost competitors through data transfer and syndication. Google further argues that data sharing requirements involving generative AI players could not have been affected by its conduct because those players did not exist during the relevant period.

"The company also takes issue with how the remedies require data sharing with generative AI players that it says "could not have been affected by Google's conduct because they did not even exist during the relevant period, and that are already succeeding as wildly as any technology in human history without any need to free-ride on Google's success.""

Read at The Verge