A US judge has ruled Google acted illegally to crush its competition and maintain a monopoly on online search and related advertising. In his decision, US District Judge Amit Mehta said Google had paid billions to ensure it is the default search engine on smartphones and browsers. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Mehta wrote in his 277-page opinion. Google's search engine is a big revenue generator for the company, bringing in billions of dollars thanks in large part to advertising displayed on its results pages. In his ruling, Judge Mehta concluded that being the default search engine is "extremely valuable real estate" for Google.
