Federal remedies in the search antitrust case against Google were perceived as underwhelming by publishers and ad industry insiders. Many observers doubted regulators could substantially curb Google's conduct given past outcomes such as the Microsoft case. The DOJ filed the case in 2020, but the market has already shifted as AI-driven, zero-click generative search chatbots change user behavior and publisher revenue. Judge Amit Mehta took rising AI competition into account when crafting remedies. Industry sources expressed disappointment and skepticism that the remedies will meaningfully reduce Google's market power or improve publishers' monetization prospects. Some observers contrasted the remedies' modesty with the rapid pace of technological change and ongoing challenges for publisher business models.
" United States. v. Google LLC turned out to be pretty mid," said Justin Wohl, VP of strategy at publisher tech platform Aditude.
"[but] in this case, it feels worse to be right."
"When this trial began, it looked like Google's monopolistic ownership of search across browsers and devices would be balanced out by the courts," he said. "The rapid arrival of AI has wildly changed that landscape and effectively dissolved that concern."
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