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Japan antitrust watchdog expected to find Google operates illegal monopoly over search: Report

Dec 22, 2024, 10:30am EST
techEast Asia
Google logo on a building.
Mike Blake/File Photo/Reuters
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Japan’s antitrust watchdog will reportedly find Google guilty of operating an illegal monopoly over search.

The anticipated ruling, Nikkei reported, comes months after a US court found Google’s search business was an illegal monopoly largely because of the company’s exclusivity contracts with device manufacturers — practices that were also at the heart of Japan’s case.

US prosecutors have pushed for Google to sell its operating system or browser — changes that would undoubtedly hurt the firm’s margins. Japan’s commission is mulling a similarly “firm stance,” Nikkei reported.

Any changes could take years to realize, however: Google is appealing the monopoly charge (a trial date is set for April, 2025), and has also recently proposed a far less damaging set of fixes to address the US ruling, and could do the same in Japan.

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