Google accused of stifling competition, faces onslaught of antitrust cases in US
17 May, 2020
Federal and state regulators in the U.S. are getting ready to file antitrust lawsuits alleging Google has abused its dominance of online search and advertising to stifle competition and and boost its profits, according to a report published Friday.
The Wall Street Journal cited unidentified persons acquainted with the probes in a tale about the upcoming offensive by the U.S. Justice Department and the attorneys general from several states.
The Justice Department may file its case as early as come early july while Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton might take action in the fall, along with his peers in other states, in line with the Journal.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr has previously said he hoped to choose whether to pursue an antitrust case against Google by the summertime. Texas and other states announced these were looking into Google’s business practices last September.
Google acknowledged it has ongoing discussions with the Justice Department and Paxton without elaborating on the type of the talks. “Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support a large number of businesses, and allow increased choice and competition,” the company said in a statement.
This isn’t the first time Google has been thrust beneath the microscope of antitrust in the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission closed an comprehensive investigation into Google’s alleged abuses in 2013 without taking any action because it concluded the Mountain View, California, company wasn’t hurting consumers.
Since then, Google has grown even more powerful beneath the umbrella of the organization parent, Alphabet, that it spawned in five years back. When the FTC closed its case, Google was producing annual earnings of $50 billion. This past year, earned Alphabet raked in $162 billion in revenue.
Almost all of the money originates from an electronic ad market that Google dominates along with social media rival Facebook _ another potential target of antitrust regulators. There's been no word, though, whether Facebook could possibly be sued.
Google is the bigger of both online ad giants, thanks mostly to a search engine that has been synonymous with looking things up. The business also owns the leading browser in Chrome, the world’s greatest mobile operating system in Android, the most notable video site in YouTube and the most popular digital mapping system.
Google has constantly maintained its services face ample competition and also have unleashed innovations that help persons manage their lives. The majority of the services are offered free of charge in exchange for private information that helps Google sell its ads.
Antitrust regulators in Europe have attempted to crack down on Google by imposing multi-billion dollar fines and ordering changes to its practices.
However the company’s critics say those penalties haven’t been extreme enough and contend more extreme measures will be asked to for Google to improve its ways. Those might add a government try to force Google to spin off its various services into separate businesses, an effort the company will be more likely to fiercely oppose.
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