Washington, D.C. — Following Judge Amit Mehta’s decision in September on remedies in U.S. v. Google search, in which he declined to terminate the tech giant’s monopoly despite finding last year that Google illegally maintained a monopoly over search and search advertising, the American Economic Liberties Project and a coalition of consumer advocacy and competition policy groups sent a letter urging state attorneys general to appeal the ruling.

“Judge Mehta’s feckless remedies decision demands an appeal by the states party to the case,” said Lee Hepner, Senior Legal Counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Allowing Google to continue paying billions for default placement keeps the very machinery of its illegal monopoly in place. The court rejected structural reforms like divesting Chrome or Android—among the key distribution channels it previously identified as central to Google’s monopoly—and ignored Google’s accelerating efforts to lock down the AI market the same way it captured search. If the states do not appeal, it will send a dangerous message that dominant firms can break the law, reap trillions in rewards, and face only cosmetic constraints.”

The letter warns that Google is already extending its dominance into artificial intelligence, integrating its Gemini AI into Chrome and securing deals to power Apple’s Siri—developments that emerged just weeks after the remedy was announced. The coalition argues these moves vindicate their concerns that without meaningful structural changes, Google will simply replicate its search monopoly in AI markets.

The letter comes ahead of closing arguments for remedies in a separate case on Google’s adtech monopoly—which eight states joined the U.S. Department of Justice on—in the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday, November 19.

Signing organizations include the American Economic Liberties Project, American Friends Service Committee, Check My Ads Institute, Good Jobs First, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, NextGen Competition, Open Markets Institute, Public Knowledge, and the Tech Oversight Project.

Read the full letter here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here. 

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.