👉 Background: Alphabet, Google's parent company, may be a tech giant worth close to $2 trillion USD, but lately it’s been facing a range of legal disputes. There was its battle with Epic Games, which it lost, as well as three antitrust cases in the European Union — all of which it lost, but appealing.

👉 What happened: This week, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has begun its second antitrust case against Google in a matter of months. The DOJ alleges that Google is illegally monopolising the market for digital ads technology by acquiring its competitors when they become a threat, and forcing website publishers to use Google’s tools.

👉 What else  Google reckons there’s nothing illegal about its practises - it's just the best in the biz. But the US DOJ seems to have taken a leaf out of the EU regulators book because it has started to come down on Google haaaaaard.

What's the key learning?

💡While the EU has largely led the charge in keeping tech giants in check, the US is starting to catch up.

💡Last month’s case against Google was the first time US prosecutors have successfully launched an antitrust case against a tech platform like Google. But this has emboldened them to take on other big tech companies, like pursuing:

• Apple's monopoly of the smartphone market
  
• Amazon's illegal block of competitors to maintain its market power
  
• Meta's actions which have contributed to increasing youth mental health issues.

💡While the US is one of the biggest markets for tech giants like Google, they’re starting to realise that their relationship with US regulators is changing.