What Trumps election win means for Google antitrust cases and the tech industry

Donald Trump’s White House win could have a major impact on antitrust regulation and US policy toward the tech sector – including a pair of pending Justice Department cases against Google.Trump – a longtime Google critic who has accused the search giant of political bias and election interference – has nevertheless expressed reluctance to break up the company of late.That’s despite the fact that the DOJ’s case targeting its online search monopoly began in 2020 during Trump’s first term in office.“It’d a very dangerous thing because we want to have great companies,” Trump said during an event in Chicago last month.

“We don’t want China to have these companies.Right now, China is afraid of Google.”On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was among a number of tech CEOs who congratulated Trump on his White House win.“Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump on his decisive victory,” Pichai wrote.

“We are in a golden age of American innovation and are committed to working with his administration to help bring the benefits to everyone.”Google currently faces a pair of Justice Department antitrust cases that could upend its business – one targeting its online search empire and another focused on its digital advertising business.The DOJ also has a pending antitrust lawsuit against Apple, while the Federal Trade Commission is suing Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and Amazon.US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google has an illegal monopoly over online search.

However, a separate trial to determine appropriate remedies will stretch into Trump’s first term in office – with Mehta not expected to make a decision until next summer.The timeline means would give Trump – and his DOJ appointees – the means to adjust their strategy.“He is certainly in the position to control the DOJ’s disposition of the remedies phase,” William Kovacic, a Republican and former Federal Trade Commission chair under George W.Bush, told Reut...