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United States v. Google: The Behavioral Economics Victory That Wasn’t

BY | February 22, 2026

United States v. Google is often described as a behavioral economics victory in antitrust. This Note argues that the label did more work than the method. The liability theory relied...

United States v. Google is often described as a behavioral economics victory in antitrust. This Note argues that the label did more work than the method. The liability theory relied on three analytical shortcuts: (i) treating status quo bias as determinative in a low-friction distribution environment without bounding conditions or magnitude; (ii) re-describing default placement as “exclusive” foreclosure without decomposing how much demand the default actually diverts in the but-for world; a

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