Google’s empire is under siege

By Emma Roth , a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO.

Today, Google will have a final chance to prove to a federal judge that its advertising business isn’t a monopoly. The US Department of Justice spent several weeks earlier this year arguing that Google maintains too much control over web advertising and uses that power to lock in customers, leaving little room for competition. The trial wraps up this week. If it loses, Google could have to make sweeping changes to the core of its business.

Even if the tech behemoth emerges from this trial unscathed, a spreading legal fire still jeopardizes everything it has created. For many years, Google’s sprawling empire has faced little legal scrutiny, allowing the company to freely build up its search engine, browser, operating systems, and line of hardware products that all intersect to bolster one another. It’s the overlap of Google’s massive businesses that has attracted attention from government agencies and tech industry rivals, who are set on taking apart Google’s stronghold piece by piece.

Google now faces threats from all sides: the European Union is probing its compliance with regulations on Big Tech, the US is suing over its search and advertising monopolies, Epic is pressing Google to open the Play Store, and Yelp is targeting Google over local search results. As President-elect Trump enters office, it’s unclear what will happen next. But one thing is certain: this is the most high-stakes moment Google has found itself in yet.

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