BBC News quotes Gareth Mills on the Google monopoly ruling

The tech world is digesting a US judge's potentially seismic ruling that Google illegally monopolises online search and related advertising.

It took four years to get to this point, and Google-owner Alphabet's inevitable appeal means this the legal process is likely to carry on for some time yet.

But already the potential consequences of the judge's decision are being considered, ranging from cash fines to other, more complicated remedies.

The US government specifically wants "structural relief" - so what could that look like?

Gareth Mills, Partner, provides comment for the BBC on whether Google could be broken up:

In short, a separation of the search engine business from Google’s other service lines must be on the table at the remedies hearing that will take place, as a consequence of this judgment. The idea of “breaking up” the Tech Giants (Google, Meta and Amazon especially) has moved from being an interesting debating topic at competition law conferences to being a significant consideration for judges and regulators alike, across jurisdictions. It may be premature to declare that this ruling alone would be the clarion call for this remedy to be automatic, and any such move would certainly be met with years of litigation and regulatory bun-fighting, but it seems to be far more “on the table” than at any time in Google’s history. 

There will now be a separate hearing where the Judge will have no option to you consider the divesture of Google from all or part of its search engine part of the business, or imposing other corporate governance controls to negate the anti-competitive conduct found to have already occurred.

Read the full piece in BBC News here.