US justice department files biggest antitrust lawsuit against Google
21 October, 2020
The US Department of Justice and 11 other states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for “unlawfully maintaining the monopolies on the market” for online searches and stifling competition along the way.
The lawsuit marks the largest antitrust case in a generation and claims that Google entered into “exclusionary agreements” to keep its monopoly in online searches and search advertising on the internet.
“Largely as a result of Google’s exclusionary agreements and anti-competitive conduct, Google in recent years has accounted for almost 90 percent of all general-search-engine queries in America, and almost 95 % of queries on cellular devices,” the lawsuit said.
“Google has thus foreclosed competition for search on the internet. General search engine rivals are denied essential distribution, scale, and product recognition-ensuring they have no real chance to challenge Google.”
The lawsuit further added that Google is becoming so ubiquitous that it is now also used as a verb to find the internet rather than simply a company name.
THE UNITED STATES government’s move comes as Big Tech - Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple - face increasing scrutiny over their practices. The lawsuit also comes more than a year following the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission commenced antitrust investigations into these tech companies.
“Today’s lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed,” the internet search engine said in a statement following the lawsuit was filed. “People use Google because they choose to, not because they're forced to, or because they can not find alternatives.
“This lawsuit would do nothing to greatly help consumers. On the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for folks to achieve the search services they want to use.”
Although this can be the first significant legal challenge for Google in America, the internet search engine giant has faced a similar predicament in Europe.
The EU fined Google $1.7 billion in 2019 for restricting websites from which consists of rivals to find advertisers. It also levied $2.6bn in 2017 against the tech giant for favouring its shopping businesses browsing and slapped $4.9bn in 2018 for blocking rivals on its Android ora.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com