Google pays to have its search engine as the default on almost all browsers and smartphones violate US antitrust law, a federal judge ruled Monday, handing a major victory to the nation's Justice Department. 
Judge Amit Mehta in Washington said the $26 billion payments by Alphabet effectively prevent any other competitor from succeeding in the market.
Antitrust authorities alleged that Google illegally maintains a monopoly on online search and the "serving" of related ads.
The U.S. government said Google has paid Apple, Samsung and others billions for decades to be number one in smartphones and browsers.
This allowed Google to create a search engine that is used by everyone around the world and feeds more than 300 billion dollars annually to the company.
