US sues Google for violating anti-trust laws
The United States department of justice has launched a landmark legal action to stop Google from unlawfully maintaining monopolies through anti-competitive and exclusionary practices in the search and search advertising markets.
“Competition in this industry is vitally important, which is why today’s challenge against Google — the gatekeeper of the internet — for violating antitrust laws is a monumental case both for the department of justice,” said US Attorney General William Barr.
As one of the wealthiest companies on the planet with a market value of $US1 trillion, Google is the monopoly gatekeeper to the internet for billions of users and countless advertisers worldwide.
As alleged in the complaint, Google has entered into a series of exclusionary agreements that collectively lock up the primary avenues through which users access search engines, and thus the internet, by requiring that Google be set as the preset default general search engine on billions of mobile devices and computers worldwide and, in many cases, prohibiting preinstallation of a competitor.
In particular, the complaint alleges that Google has unlawfully maintained monopolies in search and search advertising by:
- Entering into exclusivity agreements that forbid preinstallation of any competing search service.
- Entering into tying and other arrangements that force preinstallation of its search applications in prime locations on mobile devices and make them undeletable, regardless of consumer preference.
- Entering into long-term agreements with Apple that require Google to be the default – and de facto exclusive – general search engine on Apple’s popular Safari browser and other Apple search tools.
- Generally using monopoly profits to buy preferential treatment for its search engine on devices, web browsers, and other search access points, creating a continuous and self-reinforcing cycle of monopolisation.
Do you think more needs to be done to control Google’s monopolisation of the internet? Do you think Google should be broken up so it doesn’t have as much power?
To be fair Google is not forcing people to use its free services or preventing them from going elsewhere, it’s up to the user, I fail to see how it is “unlawful”. Seems to me countries are voluntarily giving the power to google as per the recent news that the corporation will pay publishers over $1 billion over the next three years for their news content. – they’ve signed agreements for its news partnership program with nearly 200 publications in Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, the UK and Australia.