Gujarat-born Indian American Judge Amit Mehta is Behind Landmark Google Antitrust Ruling

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta has become synonymous with critical cases, putting him in the spotlight. The Indian American made headlines yesterday for his historic ruling that Google illegally abused its monopoly in the search industry, violating antitrust laws. The tech giant” used exclusive agreements to make itself the ‘default’ search engine and ad provider on devices, giving it a major advantage over its rival,” he said in his 277-page ruling. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he said, announcing his decision.

The ruling stems from a 2020 lawsuit — the U.S. et al. v. Google — filed against Google by the Department of Justice and several states that resulted in a 10-week trial last year. The lawsuit accused the company of “illegally cementing its dominance, in part, by paying other companies, like Apple and Samsung, billions of dollars a year to have Google automatically handle search queries on their smartphones and web browsers,” according to The New York Times. 

The Gujarat-born Mehta has made significant rulings, including cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. He denied former President Donald Trump’s attempt to dismiss civil lawsuits holding him accountable for inciting the riot. In a 112-page opinion issued on Feb. 18, he analyzed Trump’s 75-minute speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6,, and outlined how the former president could conceivably be responsible for inciting the attack that followed. He said Trump’s own words and conduct in falsely alleging a “stolen” election were not immune on separation-of-powers grounds as they only served his aim of retaining office. 

The New York Times notes that Mehta’s ruling is “a harsh verdict on the rise of giant technology companies that have used their roots in the internet to influence the way we shop, consume information, and search online.” It also “indicates a potential limit of Big Tech’s power, and is likely to influence other government antitrust lawsuits against Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The last significant antitrust ruling against a tech company targeted Microsoft more than two decades ago.

The ruling, however, did not find a monopoly in the broader search advertising market.

It is “not yet clear what this ruling will mean for the future of Google’s business,” The Verge noted in its report, “as this initial finding is only about the company’s liability, not about remedies.” Google’s fate will be determined in the next phase of proceedings, which could result in anything from a mandate to stop certain business practices to a breakup of Google’s search business.

Microsoft’s chief executive Satya Nadella was among those who testified during the trial last year. He testified that he was concerned that his competitor’s dominance had created a “Google web” and that its relationship with Apple was “oligopolistic.” If Google continued undeterred, it was likely to become dominant in the race to develop artificial intelligence, he said. His view was countered by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who Google created a better service for consumers. Google plans to appeal the decision.

Google plans to appeal the ruling, president of global affairs Kent Walker said in a statement. “This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we shouldn’t be allowed to make it easily available,” he said. “As this process continues, we will remain focused on making products that people find helpful and easy to use.”

Mehta was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in December 2014, becoming the first Asian-Pacific American appointment there. Early in his tenure on the federal bench, he made waves with a case in which the Federal Trade Commission was seeking to block the proposed merger of the nation’s two largest food distributors, Sysco Corp. and US Foods.

He made history in October 2021 when he ruled that a former Afghan militant was being held unlawfully at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, making it the first time in 10 years that a detainee won such a case against the U.S. government. Mehta entered a final order and two classified opinions in the case of Asadullah Haroon Gul, who was captured in 2007 by Afghan forces. He was later turned over to the U.S. and remains one of the last 39 detainees at the prison in Cuba.

He began his career in a San Francisco law firm before clerking in the Ninth Circuit Court. From there, he worked at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm, Zuckerman Spaeder LLP where he focused on white-collar criminal cases, complex business disputes, and appellate advocacy.

He immigrated to the U.S. at age one, with his parents, Priyavadan Mehta, an engineer, and Ragini Mehta, a lab technician. He was raised outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He earned his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University in 1993 and graduated from the University of Virginia’s law school in 1997.