DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict

Today, I’m talking to Jonathan Kanter, the assistant attorney general for antitrust at the United States Department of Justice. This is Jonathan’s second time on the show, and it’s a bit of an emergency podcast situation. On Monday, a federal court issued a monumental decision in the DOJ’s case against Google, holding that Google Search and the text ads in search are monopolies. 

The court hasn’t decided on the penalties for all this yet — that process is scheduled to start next month. But it’s the biggest antitrust win against a tech company since the Microsoft case from two decades ago. I wanted to know what Jonathan thought of the ruling, what it means for the law, and most importantly, what remedies he’s going to seek to try and restore competition in search. 

Links: 

• Judge rules that Google ‘is a monopolist’ in US antitrust case | The Verge
• All the spiciest parts of the Google antitrust ruling | The Verge
• Now that Google is a monopolist, what’s next? | The Verge
• DOJ’s Kanter says the antitrust fight against Big Tech is just beginning | Decoder
• The DOJ Antitrust Division isn’t afraid to go to court | The Verge
• The US government is gearing up for an AI antitrust fight | The Verge

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23979725

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. This episode was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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