Google's Death Knell: Antitrust Suit 2025

Almost two years ago I wrote about the Biden administration, and specifically, FTC chair Lina Khan’s effort to rein in Google with an antitrust suit. Something I am happy about with the Trump administration is that their Department of Justice did not cave to the one million dollars donated to Trump’s inaugural fund (see CNBC, Politico, OpenSecrets.org for this information) and have continued to prosecute Google. It seems the chickens have come to roost for Google, as they have been ordered by DOJ attorney David Dahlquist and the judge to finally change their search engine monopoly on May 30th. How that will happen is the topic of today’s article.

Let’s reevaluate the findings of the FTC and DOJ’s case against Google first. The legal case against Google was stacked, with discovery yielding the information that Google controlled 90% of the United States’ market share for search and search advertising, which is certainly no small number. Google had also been found to have the market power to raise ad rates without losing customers. Using the vast profits from their hegemonic control of the market share, it seemed that they engaged in payola with companies like Apple with a fund of over $26 billion to retain their spots as the primary search engine on services like Safari or Firefox.

Certainly the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, agrees with that sentiment and throws some more on top too. In a press release on the 17th of April, the DOJ and Bondi released this statement:

“Google’s unlawful dominance allows them to censor and even deplatform American voices. And at the same time, Google destroyed and hid information that exposed its illegal conduct. Today’s opinion confirms Google’s controlling hand over online advertising, and, increasingly, the internet itself.”

What does this mean for Google? The FTC and DOJ are planning to force Google to share search data with their competitors according to Fox News, seemingly continuing the plan of the Biden administration on their “draconian” and “dangerous” breakup of one of America’s great tech giants. These quotes come from former national security advisor Robert O’Brien speaking on FOX about this very issue. He criticizes Bondi’s DOJ for falling in line with the Biden administration’s lead, risking to “weaken U.S. competitiveness against the giant, state-backed Chinese tech companies, since, separated entities would lack the enormous resources needed.”

Our conservative-led White House finds itself in a dilemma, then. Those in power are following Biden’s lead to dismantle Google (seemingly), while their base wishes for something different. I would also like to point out that this is FOX openly criticizing the Trump administration on an issue, which does not happen very much. The issue is, however, that the lens has moved on both sides of the issue to something entirely unrelated: national security.

Bondi and former national security advisor O’Brien both agree on one thing: China is a threat. Trump and Bondi believe throttling Google will bring more American voices to the internet, and allow more companies to have the same data on consumers Google does. I would assume this approach means that more competition means more innovation which means America beats China, but that’s a hop, skip, and jump between where we started and their speculation. O’Brien believes Google should be kept in its current state in order to continue competing with China’s tech companies.

The issue is that they have lost the plot on the case in the first place. Yes, this company is a monopoly, which everyone can agree on, but the stifling of American voices online or competition with China was never the reason this antitrust suit got off the ground. Google’s vast market share drove up the cost of their products, while removing utility and functionality, for them to make as much profit as possible. This is fundamentally a consumers’ rights issue, not a culture war topic.

So, what will happen to Google? The answer you will get from this article is that I am not sure. However, I am inclined to believe that it is going to be the wrong solution for the wrong reason. We have moved past creating reasonable competition in the search engine market to punishing Google for culture war brownie points and free speech, which was never the reason for them going to court in the first place.

I implore Secretary Bondi, her DOJ, and the FTC to not forget their constituents and their rights as consumers. Google ought to be broken up, not harangued. We as consumers deserve an experience online that is not trying to extract every last dollar out of us. We as digital marketers shouldn’t have to be paying the absurd ad rates of Google’s PPC. However, that does not mean the service is not valuable. Millions, billions, still use Google as their primary search engine and need it for their everyday lives. There is a solution that keeps Google competitive, decreases their market share, and ensures customers don’t bear the brunt of these changes in there somewhere. Just don’t forget about the small guy on your quest for justice.