Tech giant Google (GOOGL) has filed an appeal asking a U.S. court to overturn a major antitrust ruling that found the company violated the Sherman Act. The case focuses on Google’s payments to companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Mozilla to make Google the default search engine on new devices. In 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sided with the Department of Justice by ruling that Google abused its search dominance through those agreements.
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Google is now arguing that Mehta made serious legal mistakes in how he applied antitrust law. In its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the company said the ruling was “as basic an error of antitrust law as a court can make.” Google also pushed back against the requirement to share search data with competitors by arguing that its success came from building a superior search engine through innovation, hard work, and smart business decisions.
Although Mehta ruled against Google, he did not order the harshest penalty the DOJ wanted. The judge said Google would not be forced to sell Chrome, and he rejected a possible forced sale of Android. In his view, the government went too far by seeking divestitures of assets that were not used to carry out the illegal restraints. If Google loses this appeal, it could still try to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Are GOOGL Shares a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 27 Buys and five Holds assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average GOOGL price target of $428.06 per share implies 11.8% upside potential.
