United States v. Google/Findings of Fact/Section 1A

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United States v. Google
United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Findings of Fact, Section I. Parties and Relevant Nonparties

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4653710United States v. Google — Findings of Fact, Section I. Parties and Relevant NonpartiesUnited States District Court for the District of Columbia

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FINDINGS OF FACT

I. PARTIES AND RELEVANT NONPARTIES

A. Parties

1. Plaintiff United States of America, along with Plaintiffs Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin—U.S. Plaintiffs—filed the lawsuit captioned United States v. Google, 20-cv-3010 (APM). See Am. Compl. at 2–3.

2. Separately, Plaintiffs Colorado, Nebraska, Arizona, Iowa, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming— Plaintiff States—filed the lawsuit captioned State of Colorado v. Google, 20-cv-3715 (APM). See Colorado Compl.

3. Alphabet Inc. is the California-based parent company of a collection of businesses, the largest of which is Defendant Google LLC (Google). UPX8085 at 851.^[1] Google was founded in 1998 by two students from Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who left school to create Google, which is a general search engine (GSE). Trial Tr. at 7292:21–7293:1 (Raghavan) [hereinafter Tr.]. A GSE is software that produces links to websites and other relevant information in response to a user query. See infra Part II. What started in a rented garage is today one of the world’s largest companies. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alphabet and Google is Sundar Pichai. Tr. at 7638:2-12 (Pichai).

4. Although Google began as a GSE, today its core services include a suite of applications widely used on mobile and desktop devices, including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Maps, Google Photos, Google Play, and YouTube. Id. at 7717:2-12 (Pichai); UPX8085 at 852.

5. In 2008, Google developed Android, an open-source operating system for mobile devices. See Tr. at 7652:1–7653:11 (Pichai). An open-source system allows third-party developers to create new smart devices and technologies by customizing the Android system to the device or technology. See id. at 7653:2-3 (Pichai) (“[Y]ou can just take the open source project and do whatever you want with it without ever talking to Google”); id. at 9414:25–9415:3 (Rosenberg) (“Being open source, [Android is] customizable. It [i]s something that someone could take with its underlying capabilities and then build on top of and add capabilities to.”). Today, hundreds of millions of mobile devices in the United States run on the Android operating system. UPX639 at 266.

6. Also in 2008, Google launched Chrome, a web browser. Tr. at 7646:5-7 (Pichai). A web browser is software that allows users to access websites on the internet, among other things. See M. Baker Dep. Tr. at 23:1–27:8. Chrome was designed to increase the speed and seamlessness of web navigation by users. Tr. at 7649:11–7650:2 (Pichai). “Chromium is the underlying engine which powers Chrome,” and it is fully open source, like Android. Id. at 7648:21–7649:5 (Pichai). Google is the default search engine on Chrome. Id. at 7650:5-9 (Pichai).

7. Google also acquired an online advertising platform, DoubleClick, in 2008, which it developed into what today is known as SA360. Id. at 1235:5-12 (Dischler); PSX1109. SA360 is a search engine marketing tool, which allows advertisers to purchase digital advertisements across multiple platforms. Tr. at 1234:2–1235:4 (Dischler); see also infra Section V.G.

8. In 2022, Google reported Search+ revenues over $162 billion. UPX8085 at 879, 899 (including “other Google owned and operated properties like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Play”). Between 2014 and 2021, Google’s Search+ revenues more than tripled, with gross margins ranging from 76–82% annually. See UPX7002.A. The vast majority of Alphabet’s revenues (nearly 80%) come from digital advertisements, and historically the largest component has been ads displayed on Google’s search engine results page. See UPX8085 at 878–89; UPX342 at 824 (attributing approximately 66% of the “company’s revenue and $ growth for 10+ years” to search advertising).

↑ This opinion uses the last three digits of Bates numbers on an exhibit to cite the specific pages that support a finding of fact.

[1] This opinion uses the last three digits of Bates numbers on an exhibit to cite the specific pages that support a finding of fact.

[1]