Google must face part of US consumer lawsuit over search dominance

Lin’s latest ruling comes after the plaintiffs amended their complaint [File]
| Photo Credit: AP

Google has failed to persuade a judge in California to throw out a lawsuit accusing the technology giant of monopolising the online search market.

San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in a ruling on Thursday said consumers can proceed for now with allegations that the Alphabet unit’s business practices hampered the development of high-quality rival search engines.

The lawsuit filed in 2022, accused Google of unlawfully scheming with Apple to make Google the exclusive preloaded default search engine on the iPhone maker’s devices.

Lin dismissed other claims in the lawsuit related to Google’s text advertising and said the plaintiffs could not include Google chief executive Sundar Pichai and the Alphabet unit’s former chief Eric Schmidt as defendants.

Google and attorneys for the 26 consumers who filed the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Google has denied any wrongdoing. Apple is not a defendant.

Lin’s latest ruling comes after the plaintiffs amended their complaint following a ruling in August against Google by a federal judge in Washington, D.C.

In that decision, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found that Google’s exclusive contracts with Apple and other companies helped it create an illegal monopoly over search engines.

Google countered that the D.C. judge’s order, which the company is fighting, does not help the consumer plaintiffs in the California case. Google said the consumers’ lawsuit rested on unfounded allegations.

Lin said the plaintiffs had shown enough detail to contend that Google’s exclusive contracts for default status have hurt market competition.

At this stage in the case, Lin wrote, the consumers’ claims support their conclusion that in a more competitive market “viable search alternatives would have emerged that offer greater privacy protections or are less clogged with ads.”

Lin set the next hearing in the case for February. 12.