Google’s payments to make its search engine the default on smartphone web browsers violates US antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing a key victory to the Justice Department, Bloomberg’s Leah Nylen reports. Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said that the Alphabet (GOOGL) unit’s $26B in payments effectively blocked any other competitor from succeeding in the market, the author notes. Antitrust enforcers alleged that Google has illegally maintained a monopoly over online search and related advertising. The government said that Google has paid Apple (AAPL), Samsung (SSNLF) and others billions over decades for prime placement on smartphones and web browsers.
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