Google loses huge antitrust case over search

Google has just lost a massive antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice that has huge ramifications for big tech companies and Google Search users.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruledthat Google had indeed violated federal antitrust law in order to make sure Google Search was the dominant search product online.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," wrote Judge Mehta in the opinion.

How did Google get itself into this predicament?

The main issue at hand here in this case was the financial agreements that Google had with other companies in order to make sure Google Search was the default search engine in products such as Apple's Safari web browser.

Google pays Apple a whopping $20 billiona year in order to maintain its position as the default search engine on Safari for iOS, for example. Most users do not change those default settings. As a result, Google is able to serve search advertising to a large portion of Apple iPhone's user base.

The federal judge ruled that Google's practices were anticompetitive. Although the exact repercussions for the industry remain unclear, and the judge has yet to determine the penalties Google will face, it is apparent that Google's $20 billion payment to Apple to remain the default search engine on iOS is likely to come to an end.

Mashable will follow this breaking story and update readers as we learn more.