Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google on October 20, 2020, asserting that it has illegally maintained its monopoly position in web search and search advertising. House of Representatives’ Antitrust Subcommittee released in early October, the U.S. On October 9, 2018, Google confirmed that it had appealed the fine to the General Court of the EU. On June 27, 2017, the company received a record fine of €2.42 billion from the European Union (EU) for « promoting its own shopping comparison service at the top of search results ». Google reaches market domination of the global web search engine market with around 90% market share. Google has had criticism over issues such as aggressive tax avoidance, search neutrality, copyright, censorship of search results and content, and privacy.

Google expanded its search services to include shopping (launched originally as Froogle in 2002), finance (launched 2006), and flights (launched 2011). Google launched its Google News service in 2002, an automated service which summarizes news articles from various websites. The order of search results returned by Google is based, in part, on a priority rank system called PageRank which was originally developed in 1996 by Google Pay casino Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Scott Hassan. Google is the most-visited website in the world; as of 2025, it has a 90% share of the global search engine market. It also uses generative AI (including a dedicated AI Mode) to respond to queries.

Google was grilled at a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on the project one month later. In 2017, three women sued Google, accusing the company of violating California’s Equal Pay Act by underpaying its female employees. In the advertising technology case in the U.S., a judge ruled that Google had an illegal monopoly and required changes to Google’s practices to alleviate the issues but rejected the Justice Department’s request that Google be broken up. If found guilty, Google could face penalties of up to 10% of its global turnover. The investigation claimed Google used its market power to prevent rivals from competing fairly, affecting billions spent on digital ads. In August 2024, District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google held a monopoly in online search and text advertising in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act.