American Justice: Google Dismantling May Be Necessary to Stop Antitrust Violations

On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, which is owned by Alphabet.

American Justice claimed that the trillion-dollar company is using its market power to deter competitors, and said that nothing is excluded, including the division of the Internet search and advertising company.

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The suit, involving 11 states, is the largest antitrust case in three decades, being matched only by the lawsuit filed against Microsoft in 1998 and the case in 1974 against AT&T that led to the dismantling of Bell Systems.

The lawsuit alleges that Google acted illegally to maintain its position in Internet search activities and advertisements, and said that “without a court order, Google will continue to implement its non-competitive strategy, hinder the competition process, reduce consumer choices and undermine innovation.”

The lawsuit stated that Google has nearly 90 percent of all public inquiries on search engines in the United States, and about 95 percent of searches via phones.

The lawsuit states: “Google is now the undisputed gateway to the Internet for billions of users around the world..for the interests of American consumers, advertisers and all companies that currently rely on the Internet economy, it is time to address Google’s non-competitive behavior and restore competition.”

“It is consumers and advertisers who will ultimately suffer from the lack of options, the lack of innovations, and the lack of competitive advertising rates,” she added.

Google described the lawsuit as “deeply flawed,” adding that people “use Google because they chose it not because they were forced to do so or because they could not find alternatives.”

Source: Reuters

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