Statement from Attorney General Skrmetti Regarding Court Fixes to End Google Search Engine Monopoly and Restore Competition

Nashville — Attorney General Skrmetti released the following statement regarding Tuesday’s court ruling on the remedies in the Google search antitrust case to restore competition in the market and for the benefit of consumers:

“Google’s illegal monopoly on search hurt consumers and stifled innovation. Google’s search platform went from the brilliant disruptor that buried its competitors to the bloated husk that decayed over their graves. This led to reduced quality in search and contributed to the abuses of the narrow West Coast monoculture that suppressed conservative views in the 2020 election,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “The Court's ruling requires Google to provide transparency to advertisers so that consumers have real choices. We continue to review the remedies order and will work to ensure that consumers enjoy the benefit of meaningful competition in search markets.  We were glad to help lead a coalition of states fighting alongside Gail Slater’s team at DOJ’s Antitrust Division.”

For years, Google has been the dominant gateway for users to search the internet. Tennessee helped lead a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general in December 2020 in filing the states’ lawsuit against Google for illegally maintaining its monopoly over search engines and related search advertising through a series of anticompetitive contracts and conduct. The multistate lawsuit was a companion to an earlier federal antitrust lawsuit the Justice Department filed in October 2020.

In August 2024, a D.C. federal district court judge ruled in a landmark decision that Google has abused its monopoly power and harmed consumers in online search and search text ads. Earlier this year, the 38-state coalition of attorneys general and the Justice Department proposed a comprehensive and legally sound package of remedies to restore competition and spur renewed innovation in the search marketplace and to benefit consumers.

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