Last week, United States federal district judge Amit ·Mehta ruled that Google had broken the law for monopolizing the online search market, the first victory for the United States government in a series of antitrust lawsuits against big tech companies.

Shares of Google's parent company, Alphabet, fell more than 4%, weighed down by a general decline in global stock markets.

Google's dominance may be challenged

A federal judge in the District Court of United States Colombia D.C. released the results of its ruling on Monday, finding that Google's search business violated United States antitrust laws, meaning that Google's long-standing dominance in the search market could be challenged.

Not only does the Justice Department reportedly seek to undermine Google's lucrative partnership with Apple, but in the next phase of the case, when it comes to penalties for Google's illegal monopoly, the Justice Department may also try to prevent Google from dominating the next generation of search technology, conversational artificial intelligence, and make it easier for rival search providers to challenge Google's market share of up to 95 percent in the search market.

Gene Bruce, former assistant general counsel at Microsoft Burrus) said Justice Department lawyers would almost certainly ask judges to take "structural remedies," not just "behavioral" adjustments to Google's search business and partnerships with companies like Apple. For example, Google may be asked to divest the Android operating system. The judge has already pointed out that Android has helped Google maintain an unjustified monopoly position.

Bruce also noted that the Justice Department could push for larger-scale changes, in part so that the government doesn't have to actively monitor Google's compliance with new restrictions on its core business. This is because past experience has shown that such oversight is often difficult to implement.

Colombia District federal judge Mehta (Amit It's unclear what decision Mehta will make. But the United States Economic Freedom Project (American Economic Liberties Project). Hepner said that many cases in the past have shown that courts tend to be lenient with remedies proposed by the government after decisions in complex cases.

What kind of punishment will Google face?

The lawsuit has now entered its second phase, with the court determining the specific penalties that Google will face for violating antitrust laws. Considering that Google has already stated that it will file an appeal, it is foreseeable that it will take some time for the entire litigation process to be finally resolved.

Li Liang, associate professor and master's supervisor of the Institute of Comprehensive Law-based Governance at China University of Political Science and Law, said in an interview with the CBN reporter: "Anti-monopoly penalties and remedies usually include fines, behavioral remedies and structural remedies. Among them, behavioral remedies refer to requiring the enterprises involved in the case to stop certain acts or perform certain acts to restore and promote market competition, while structural remedies involve the separation of enterprises. Structural remedies are generally used less often in practice because they involve fundamental changes to the structure of the enterprise and have a greater degree of intervention. In this case, a combination of fines and behavioral remedies is more likely to be used. ”

"The penalties that Google may face are varied, including hefty fines, behavioral restrictions, spin-offs, adjustments to contracts and commercial agreements, oversight and audits, and consumer compensation," Zhang said. However, the more likely penalties should be large fines and restrictions on conduct. ”

Shares of Google's parent company Alphabet extended its decline, falling more than 5% at one point to closing down 4.6% at $160.64 per share, the lowest closing level since April 25, and its total market capitalization fell to $2.02 trillion.

The bigger loser could be Apple

Ironically, while the remedies that the court is asking Google to take are primarily directed at Google itself, the impact of these measures on Apple may be even more significant.

Vasquez · Duque believes that Judge Meta may prohibit monopolies like Google from entering into exclusive contracts, such as the one with Apple. In this case, Apple may seek similar deals with other search engines, such as Microsoft's Bing, or emerging AI startups such as OpenAI.

However, the resulting competition in the search advertising market could lead to a reduction in Apple's cut from such partnerships, affecting its tens of billions of dollars in net profits.

In addition to the potential loss of this sizable revenue from Google, Apple also faces other challenges. Since unveiling its AI strategy in June, which includes a new business unit called Apple Smart and a partnership with OpenAI, Apple's stock price has risen in anticipation of a major iPhone upgrade cycle.

However, as of now, Apple's demonstrated AI capabilities don't seem to be impressive. Barron's technology columnist Tae Kim Kim recently wrote that Apple's AI capabilities seem rudimentary, limited to features such as text summarization, emoji creation, and image generation. He believes that these new additions are unlikely to trigger a massive wave of iPhone upgrades.