Google is big. Does that make it a monopoly?

Judge Amit Mehta 's August 5, 2024 , ruling in U.S. v. Google was hailed as a rare triumph for bipartisanship.

Peter Bergen : The underlying legal dispute is anything but new in the world of law and economics.

For well over a century , two competing views about monopoly have jostled for dominance in American law.

Stephen Field , a late Supreme Court justice, was appointed to the bench by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 .

He argued that government should not interfere with successful private enterprises in the name of "bigness" He says Brandeis ' ideas of monopoly have been shaping the legal debate ever since.

The Justice Department says Google has dominated the internet search market to such an extent that it effectively has no meaningful competition left.

Google has already vowed to appeal its loss to the higher legal authorities at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit .

There's also the related question of just how dominant Google Search is likely to remain given the new competition it may increasingly face from developments in artificial intelligence.