谷歌因其搜索主导地位在反垄断案件中败诉
【中美创新时报2024 年 8 月 5日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）周一，一名法官裁定，谷歌无处不在的搜索引擎一直在非法利用其主导地位来压制竞争和扼杀创新，这一重大决定可能会撼动互联网并阻碍这家全球最知名的公司之一的发展。美联社记者马修·巴拉卡特（MATTHEW BARAKAT）和迈克尔·利特克（MICHAEL LIEDTKE）对此作了下述报道。
美国地区法官阿米特·梅塔 (Amit Mehta) 做出的这项备受期待的裁决是在近一年前，美国司法部与谷歌的审判开始，这是该国 25 年来最大的反垄断对决。
在审查了大量证据（包括去年为期 10 周的庭审中谷歌、微软和苹果高管的证词）后，梅塔在双方于 5 月初提交结案陈词三个月后做出了可能改变市场格局的决定。
这对谷歌及其母公司 Alphabet Inc. 来说是一个重大挫折，后者曾坚定地认为，谷歌的受欢迎程度源于消费者对搜索引擎的强烈渴望，这种搜索引擎功能如此强大，以至于它已经成为在线查找的代名词。根据投资公司 BOND 最近发布的一项研究，谷歌的搜索引擎目前每天处理全球约 85 亿次查询，几乎是 12 年前的两倍。
谷歌几乎肯定会对该决定提出上诉，最终可能会诉诸美国最高法院。
目前，这一决定为司法部的反垄断监管机构辩护，该机构在近四年前唐纳德·特朗普仍担任总统时提起了诉讼，并在乔·拜登总统执政期间加大了遏制大型科技公司权力的力度。
该案将谷歌描绘成一个技术恶霸，它有条不紊地阻挠竞争以保护搜索引擎，而该搜索引擎已成为数字广告机器的核心，去年创造了近 2400 亿美元的收入。司法部律师辩称，谷歌的垄断使其能够向广告商收取人为的高价，同时还享受着必须投入更多时间和金钱来改善其搜索引擎质量的奢侈——这种松懈的做法损害了消费者的利益。
谷歌嘲笑这些指控，并指出，消费者历来在对获得的结果感到失望时会更换搜索引擎。例如，雅虎——现在是互联网上的一个小角色——在谷歌出现之前的 1990 年代是最受欢迎的搜索引擎。
梅塔得出的结论是谷歌一直在进行非法垄断，这为下一步法律程序打下了基础，以确定应实施何种改变或处罚措施，以扭转造成的损害并恢复更具竞争力的格局。
潜在结果可能导致一项范围广泛的命令，要求谷歌拆除其互联网帝国的一些支柱，或阻止其每年斥资超过 200 亿美元，以确保其搜索引擎自动回答 iPhone 和其他互联网连接设备上的查询。在下一阶段之后，法官可能会得出结论，只需进行适度的改变即可实现公平竞争。
如果发生重大变动，可能会成为微软的一次政变，微软自身的权力在 1990 年代后期受到削弱，当时司法部针对这家软件制造商提起了反垄断诉讼，指控其滥用 Windows 操作系统在个人电脑上的主导地位来阻止竞争。
微软的那起案件在多个方面与针对谷歌的案件如出一辙，现在的结果也可能与之类似。正如微软激烈的反垄断战给谷歌带来了干扰和障碍，从而为其在 1998 年成立后带来了更多机会一样，对谷歌不利的判决对微软来说可能是一个福音，因为微软的市值已经超过 3 万亿美元。Alphabet 的市值一度超过微软，但现在落后于其竞争对手，市值约为 2 万亿美元。
除了提振微软的必应搜索引擎，这一结果还可能在人工智能时代技术发展的关键转折点上损害谷歌。微软和谷歌都是人工智能领域的早期领导者，这场战斗现在可能会受到梅塔令人震惊的市场决定的影响。
微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉是司法部在作证时的主要证人之一，他表示对谷歌与苹果等公司达成的交易感到失望，这些交易让必应搜索引擎几乎无法取得任何进展，尽管微软自 2009 年以来已投入超过 1000 亿美元进行改进。
“你早上起床，刷牙，然后在谷歌上搜索，”纳德拉在作证时说道。“每个人都在谈论开放网络，但实际上谷歌网络是存在的。”
纳德拉还表示担心，随着人工智能成为搜索领域的更大力量，可能需要反垄断打击来确保情况不会变得更糟。
“尽管我对人工智能的新视角感到兴奋，但我非常担心我陷入的这个恶性循环可能会变得更加恶性，”纳德拉在证人席上说道。
除了这个威胁之外，谷歌还面临着美国国内和国外的其他法律威胁。国内外对谷歌提起的任何反垄断诉讼。今年 9 月，弗吉尼亚州将就司法部指控谷歌广告技术构成非法垄断一事展开一场联邦审判。
题图：David Gray/摄影师：David Gray/Bloombe
附原英文报道：
Google loses massive antitrust case over its search dominance
By MATTHEW BARAKAT and MICHAEL LIEDTKE The Associated Press,Updated August 5, 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — A judge on Monday ruled that Google’s ubiquitous search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation in a seismic decision that could shake up the internet and hobble one of the world’s best-known companies.
The highly anticipated decision issued by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta comes nearly a year after the start of a trial pitting the U.S. Justice Department against Google in the country’s biggest antitrust showdown in a quarter century.
After reviewing reams of evidence that included testimony from top executives at Google, Microsoft and Apple during last year’s 10-week trial, Mehta issued his potentially market-shifting decision three months after the two sides presented their closing arguments in early May.
It represents a major setback for Google and its parent, Alphabet Inc., which had steadfastly argued that its popularity stemmed from consumers’ overwhelming desire to use a search engine so good at what it does that it has become synonymous with looking things up online. Google’s search engine currently processes an estimated 8.5 billion queries per day worldwide, nearly doubling its daily volume from 12 years ago, according to a recent study released by the investment firm BOND.
Google almost certainly will appeal the decision in a process that ultimately may land in the U..S. Supreme Court.
For now, the decision vindicates antitrust regulators at the Justice Department, which filed its lawsuit nearly four years ago while Donald Trump was still president, and has been escalating it efforts to rein in Big Tech’s power during President Joe Biden’s administration.
The case depicted Google as a technological bully that methodically has thwarted competition to protect a search engine that has become the centerpiece of a digital advertising machine that generated nearly $240 billion in revenue last year. Justice Department lawyers argued that Google’s monopoly enabled it to charge advertisers artificially high prices while also enjoying the luxury of having to invest more time and money into improving the quality of its search engine — a lax approach that hurt consumers.
Google ridiculed those allegations, noting that consumers have historically changed search engines when they become disillusioned with the results they were getting. For instance, Yahoo — now a minor player on the internet — was the most popular search engine during the 1990s before Google came along.
Mehta’s conclusion that Google has been running an illegal monopoly sets up another legal phase to determine what sorts of changes or penalties should be imposed to reverse the damage done and restore a more competitive landscape.
The potential outcome could result in a wide-ranging order requiring Google to dismantle some of the pillars of its internet empire or prevent it from shelling out more than $20 billion annually to ensure its search engine automatically answers queries on the iPhone and other internet-connected devices. After the next phase, the judge could conclude only modest changes are required to level the playing field.
If there is a significant shakeup, it could turn out to be a coup for Microsoft, whose own power was undermined during the late 1990s when the Justice Department targeted the software maker in an antitrust lawsuit accusing it of abusing the dominance of its Windows operating system on personal computers to lock out competition.
That Microsoft case mirrored the one brought against Google in several ways and now the result could also echo similarly. Just as Microsoft’s bruising antitrust battle created distractions and obstacles that opened up more opportunities for Google after its 1998 inception, the decision against Google could be a boon for Microsoft, which already has a market value of more than $3 trillion. At one time, Alphabet was worth more than Microsoft, but now trails its rival with a market value of about $2 trillion.
Besides boosting Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the outcome could hurt Google at a critical pivot point that is tilting technology in the age of artificial intelligence. Both Microsoft and Google are among the early leaders in AI in a battle that now could be affected by Mehta’s market-rattling decision.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was one of the Justice Department’s star witnesses during the testimony that covered his frustration with Google deals with the likes of Apple that made it nearly impossible for the Bing search engine to make any headway, even as Microsoft poured more than $100 billion in improvements since 2009.
“You get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and you search on Google,” Nadella said at one point in his testimony. “Everybody talks about the open web, but there is really the Google web.”
Nadella also expressed fear that it might take an antitrust crackdown to ensure the situation didn’t get worse as AI becomes a bigger force in search.
“Despite my enthusiasm that there is a new angle with A.I., I worry a lot that this vicious cycle that I’m trapped in could get even more vicious,” Nadella said on the stand.
Google still faces other legal threats besides this one, both in the U.S. and abroad. any antitrust lawsuits brought against Google domestically and abroad. In September, a federal trial is scheduled to begin in Virginia over the Justice Department’s allegations that Google’s advertising technology constitutes an illegal monopoly.
