U.S. v. Google

The year was 1998. Bill Clinton was in office. Titanic had just won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Backstreet Boys were ascendant. And Microsoft was in court, teeing off against the Justice Department over claims that it was a monopoly. That landmark case, which ultimately resulted in a settlement, was the last time the government took a major tech company to trial for antitrust issues.

That will change next week, when the U.S. et al v. Google trial begins in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department (joined by a group of states) has sued Google, claiming that the search giant illegally protected its market position by striking exclusive deals—in particular, one with Apple starting 18 years ago that set Google as the default search engine on iPhones and other devices. This isn’t the department’s only lawsuit against the company, but it is the first to go to trial, and regardless of the outcome, this case signals that the government is serious about investigating the influence that a few companies have consolidated. And it could put pressure on tech firms to proceed more carefully.