Skip to main content
Discussion Paper

The Second Bride in the Bath: A Roadmap for a Monopolization Case Against Google in AI

Published: July 2026

In United States v. Google, the court found that Google illegally monopolized search — yet left the company's ecosystem advantages intact. This Article argues that Google is now running the same playbook in AI: paying for default placement on Android devices, contracting with Apple to power Siri with Gemini, tying its AI assistant to must-have apps, and locking rivals out of the distribution channels through which AI reaches consumers. Drawing on the pattern logic of the “Brides in the Bath” case, we show that the conduct that monopolized search maps onto the emerging AI assistant market with little modification, and we set out a roadmap for enforcers: theories of monopoly maintenance, attempted monopolization, and tying; the harms to consumers, publishers, and AI rivals; and a suite of workable remedies. The lesson of Microsoft, Meta, and the search case itself is that antitrust succeeds only when it moves before a market tips. For AI, that moment is now.