Google violated antitrust law to keep a monopoly on search, federal judge rules

• Google was just dealt a massive loss in its landmark antitrust case.
• "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," the judge wrote.
• It was accused of spending billions to be the default search engine on Apple devices and beyond.

Google violated antitrust law with its online search, a federal judge ruled Monday, striking a major blow against one of the titans of the tech industry.

District Judge Amit Mehta said Google's billions in payments to keep its search engine as the default on web browsers violated US law.