Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) absorbed a pair of antitrust setbacks this week, losing ground in a U.S. lawsuit brought by Yelp and drawing a roughly $1.5 billion damages order in Europe.
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According to Courthouse News Service, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen ruled Tuesday that Google is barred from re-litigating whether it holds monopoly power in the general search market, saying the Department of Justice already established that Google held monopoly power in a landmark antitrust case last year.
The practical effect gives Yelp Inc. (NYSE:YELP) a step up in its own suit: the company can skip discovery on that issue, and if the case reaches trial, jurors will simply be told Google has a search monopoly rather than Yelp having to prove it. The recognition stems from U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta‘s 2024 decision, which found Google acted as a monopolist to dominate online search.
Yelp shares closed Wednesday up 7.06% at $26.25 after getting an extra boost in the afternoon session after Bloomberg Law picked up the story.
A Swedish court on Wednesday also ordered Google to pay about $1.5 billion in damages to PriceRunner, the price-comparison business owned by payments platform Klarna Group (NYSE:KLAR), for favoring its own shopping service in search results, per Reuters. Including interest, the award totals $1.97 billion.
Together, the rulings underscore the mounting antitrust pressure on Google across both search and shopping, even as the company continues to appeal the DOJ case that now underpins challenges like Yelp’s.
Despite the pair of unfavorable rulings, Alphabet (GOOG) shares closed Wednesday up 1.29% at $357.89, according to Benzinga Pro.
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