Google CEO Sundar Pichai during a press conference after meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the Warsaw Google for Startups Campus on February 13, 2025 in Warsaw, Poland.
Jakub Porzycki | Null Photo | Getty Images
google filed an appeal Friday against a federal judge’s ruling that the company had an illegal monopoly in the core market of Internet search.
The appeal could delay relief for the Alphabet-owned company while the legal process progresses.
Lee Ann Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulation, said in a blog post Friday that the 2024 ruling “ignores the reality that people use Google because they want to, not because they are forced to.”
“This decision did not take into account the rapid pace of innovation and intense competition from established players and well-funded startups,” she wrote.
The antitrust trial began in September 2023, and in August 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing search and related advertising. At the time, Google said it would likely appeal the decision.
Last spring, the company and the Department of Justice participated in a redress trial to determine the consequences of Google’s implementation. Witnesses from the following countries participated in the trial: apple and Mozilla, as well as competitors from OpenAI and other companies. In September 2025, Mehta ruled against the most severe consequences proposed by the Justice Department, including the forced sale of Google’s Chrome browser. The ruling was seen as a victory for Google, whose stock rose 8% on the news.
Mehta finalized the relief package in December. Mehta stipulated that Google would have to share some of the raw search interaction data it uses to train its ranking and AI systems, but avoided the need to share the actual algorithms. Mehta also wrote that Google cannot enter into agreements like the search agreement with Apple “unless the agreement is terminated within one year of the date of execution.”
Analysts at the time described the lighter-than-expected treatment as a slap on the wrist.
Mulholland wrote Friday that Google is asking for a pause in implementing the relief package.
“These mandates would put Americans’ privacy at risk and deter competitors from developing their own products,” Mulholland wrote. “It will ultimately stifle the innovation that keeps America at the forefront of global technology.”
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