[blackwasp]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and 11 Republican-controlled states on Tuesday filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Google — "the gatekeeper of the internet" — engaged in anticompetitive practice to preserve monopolies in search and search-advertising, marking the first major such move against a technology giant since the case against Microsoft over 20 years ago.

Technology companies have come under increasing scrutiny of lawmakers across the world, especially in Europe, since online disinformation hit the 2016 Presidential election and the Brexit referendum. In the US, the tech companies are facing antitrust investigations by multiple state authorities as well as the DOJ, besides being grilled at Congressional hearings.

Yet legal experts say the existing antitrust laws may need to be amended to pin down tech companies as they do not function like railroad-era monopolies — tech monopolies don't result in rising prices for consumers, and they have strong competitors in some sectors they operate, if not all.

Against Google, DOJ narrowed its focus on its search business. In the US, nearly 80% of online search is processed by Google (90% globally). The lawsuit alleges that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisements to pay Apple and other mobile-phone makers, carriers and web browsers to maintain Google as their default search engine, giving it an undue advantage, foreclosing competition and harming consumers and advertisers. The legal fight is expected to run into years.

Source

The U.S. government’s antitrust case against Google follows a similar path to its attack on Microsoft Corp. more than 20 years ago -- and that should make the internet giant nervous.

The suit focuses on payments Google makes to ensure its search engine is the default on mobile phones and web browsers. Google’s dominant market share and massive revenue allows it to spend billions of dollars a year on these deals, blocking out competitors from the valuable placements and limiting consumer choice, the Justice Department alleged.

It’s a similar argument the government made against Microsoft when it alleged in 1998 that the software company was requiring computer makers to set its web browser as the default on their machines. That lawsuit dragged on for years, distracted executives and helped Microsoft competitors -- Google among them.

Source

[haisaikat]

I think Google is not alone doing this, a lot of Chinese origin phones which are branded Make in India actually came with UC Browser which you cannot get rid of from your phone and even if you set default as something else , the same keeps intruding on various occasions to launch links through itself.

Thankfully UC Browser is now banned in India.

UC Browser, which is one of the popular mobile browsers, with over 50 crore downloads, has been banned in India. The government said that it decided to impose the ban as the browser was amongst the 59 apps that “pose a threat to sovereignty and security” of the country. This means that instead of downloading the UC Browser for the time being, you should look for some alternatives.

Source

Search Engines and Web Browsers allow collecting a lot of data on "YOU" which can be used in your profiling that can be monetized. If you loved using Chrome, try the original open source project behind it, its called Chromium, ad free and track free. Similar applies to lot of non-trackable search engines too.

But in the above Google case, I think they will exercise their lobby and come out eventually with mutual settlement.

[sj_koova]

This is beyond monopoly now.

My six years daughter said yesterday, you have to go into amazon app and google for her toys. Basically she wanted to convince me that how easy it is to find right things when I google in Amazon app. She was ready with her keywords as well.

For her, search bar == google

[Cessna182]

Good step, and long coming. The tech giants think they are invincible, but lakhs of workers and shop owners have been left desolate because they can't afford to advertise on google or Amazon. They will protest, and perhaps win. In India, people become happy seeing that a few hundred folks from good colleges get job offers from google every year. They don't realize that google is at the root of decimation of the media industry and the small businesses. Google influences public opinion by spamming you with the ad from a company that pays more for keywords, and it is not a fair game anymore. You won't even see the neighborhood furniture store in your feed if you search for a sofa, but you'll definitely see an online shopping site selling fake-wood sofas made in China (yes, I am talking about pepperfry and similar companies) for a higher price.

[alpha1]

What will be the outcome of this anti-trust measure?
Decoupling of default Google apps from Android?

Though I am all in for all the reasons mentioned by Cessna182 and in general I am against the gradual re-monopolization of everything due to "winner takes it all" phenomena aided by technology, I am quite skeptic about these moves.

Google can always wiggle out by saying that they do not sell the products and hence they cannot make use of their dominant position in search engine to sell something.
Second is that they established themselves as "the search engine" for everyone, why can't other search engines catch up. (It is another story that others had some hopes 10 year back, but with smart phones and the ubiquity of android makes it impossible for anyone to catch-up now)

Originally Posted by Cessna182

people become happy seeing that a few hundred folks from good colleges get job offers from google every year. They don't realize that google is at the root of decimation of the media industry and the small businesses. Google influences public opinion by spamming you with the ad from a company that pays more for keywords, and it is not a fair game anymore. You won't even see the neighborhood furniture store in your feed if you search for a sofa, but you'll definitely see an online shopping site selling fake-wood sofas made in China (yes, I am talking about pepperfry and similar companies) for a higher price.

The trouble is how do you prove this?

[GTO]

At worst, I think Google will get away with a slap on the wrists & a couple of hundred million dollars in fines. Google Search dominates because it is so damn good. Even Microsoft - with all its might - tried to fight Google with Bing, but to no avail. And why just search? We see many other such "monopolies" (or almost-monopolies). Maps, YouTube, Adsense, Android etc.

Can Facebook be sued for monopoly of the social media space? I'm guessing Facebook + Instagram account for 80% or higher market-share?

[Thermodynamics]

This will drag into politics. As such a search engine is just a tool, one or other political party is going to grab the contract. Whoever lost, cries foul. Unlike news channels where you got CNN vs Foxnews, in the realm of Internet space, only the mightiest survive, rest lay in peace.

Here is an interesting video on the monopoly of big-tech giants.

https://youtu.be/jyxS2bvQGxc

The development in technology has been too fast for legal/regulations to catch-up.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by GTO

At worst, I think Google will get away with a slap on the wrists & a couple of hundred million dollars in fines. Google Search dominates because it is so damn good. Even Microsoft - with all its might - tried to fight Google with Bing, but to no avail. And why just search? We see many other such "monopolies" (or almost-monopolies). Maps, YouTube, Adsense, Android etc.

Can Facebook be sued for monopoly of the social media space? I'm guessing Facebook + Instagram account for 80% or higher market-share?

Exactly - these monopolies exist out of user choice. There is a reason companies don't advertise as much on snapchat or twitter.

Further, has anyone come across a sane prescient read on the Google antitrust piece from a geopolitical lens?

This may sound like a dumb question for biz-tech folks:
Antitrust is fine in a world like AT&T monopolizing telecom in USA in 20th century

In a world where Chinese companies compete heavily on digital platforms - can antitrust erode western companies' edge?

Say what you will to China - they will operate like they want - so it could be a self goal

just as we are seeing with the tiktok deal which achieved zero!

[Jeroen]

Mark my words: Like the outcome of the Microsoft debacle don’t hold your breath for any major changes. Microsoft had to decouple the bundling of some of it’s products. (e.g. take its browser out of the standard package, but just about everybody choose it as an option, so nothing materially changed). Does anybody believe that Microsoft has less grip, less market share, less influence, less dominance on the IT industry since they made those changes?

The big tech companies are way too important for the USA. So they will go through the motion, the politicians will make a lot of noise, everybody will act very indignant and all.

Some changes will be made. Some people (mostly politicians / legislators) will claim victory. But it will not change anything really. It is all just a visual illusion.

A real problem here is that many politician are way out of there depth here. Watch the various congressional hearing with the likes such as Google and Facebook. Their question to the respective CEO’s are of a mind blowing simplicity. It one thing being naïve, but this was just an embarrassing display of total lack of insight. They have no clue. The just don’t even begin to understand the business model that some of these high tech companies operate under.

Jeroen

[download2live]

For Anti-Trust motion to succeed they have to prove that the end consumer is paying more because of the monopoly. And Amazon, Google etc have been reducing the costs for the end customers. This has been their defense till now. US lawmakers tried to change the law I think 10 years ago but Amazon lobbied successfully against it.

So as it stands it is a tough nut to crack.

I am seeing that the tech giants have been nimble. Especially Amazon. Yes it decimates the mom and pop corner shop businesses but then it does not milk the monopoly to the last drop. They always keep the prices lower than the corner store.

I think Google stock actually went up after the news.

[Tucker48]

Google is probably looking at few billions going down the drain. It's loose change for them but shareholders will ask some questions and some might even sell their shares fearing future actions by authorities in grey areas (yes there are plenty of them). If other countries follow US in penalising Google, then it might become a turning point for Google but not in a good way. Recently govt of j&k issued summons to India Facebook head in a case of online cheating which Facebook promoted. In the past, due to the nascent tag, these platforms were let off with mild warnings but now these trillion dollar companies will have to mend their ways through stern warnings, hefty fines, or forced splits.
Standard oil was forcefully split in the past and I firmly believe if these tech giants don't improve their systems for a fair game then they might also have to lose some of their functionality. It's not imminent (due to virus and China factor) but yes I'm hoping this to happen within the next few years.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by download2live

Amazon, Google etc have been reducing the costs for the end customers....Especially Amazon.

And in India they have also succeeded in keeping a certain greedy, unscrupulous, potentially monopolistic behemoth at bay.

[landcruiser123]

This lawsuit is very narrow and is more of a political stunt by the current ruling party. Google will get away with fines which are pocket change for such companies. Search engines are very hard to build from scratch. Not even Yahoo/Microsoft/DuckDuckGo can compete with Google. Rather than trying such near pointless lawsuits, regulators should focus on enacting better privacy laws to ensure that digital companies can't get away with anything.

Countries must learn how to tax digital companies. These companies shouldn't be dealt with the same laws which were formed for the industrial age economy.

We are no more in the era of capitalism of tangible goods, we are in the era of the intangible capitalism of time. The biggest companies have no incentives to put more $$$ in your pocket for you to buy their products (and therefore fill their coffers).

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by GTO

At worst, I think Google will get away with a slap on the wrists & a couple of hundred million dollars in fines. Google Search dominates because it is so damn good. Even Microsoft - with all its might - tried to fight Google with Bing, but to no avail. And why just search? We see many other such "monopolies" (or almost-monopolies). Maps, YouTube, Adsense, Android etc.

Can Facebook be sued for monopoly of the social media space? I'm guessing Facebook + Instagram account for 80% or higher market-share?

The article is very poorly worded. Antitrust is not about having a dominant market share. Its about using your dominant position in one market to push another product.

For example, Microsoft was fined not due to Windows monopoly on home desktops. The lawsuit was specifically for pushing Internet explorer.

This is about "abusing" a monopoly.
For example, lets say Facebook starts using its platform to just push Oculus rift VR products while suppressing everything else.

Google using its search engine to promote links which belong to google would be a abuse of the monopoly.

This is anti trust. And one thing is certain, Anti Trust laws have fallen far behind the times. As the world has moved on laws fail to catch up.Not just laws regarding monopoly and competition, but others too.

For example if you work in a restaurant in the west you need to be paid minimum wage. But if its an app, all that goes away.
Hotels need to follow laws regarding sanitation, waste disposal, zoning etc.,. But if its an app then you don't need to follow the rules.

[extreme_torque]

Originally Posted by phamilyman

In a world where Chinese companies compete heavily on digital platforms - can antitrust erode western companies' edge?

Say what you will to China - they will operate like they want - so it could be a self goal

just as we are seeing with the tiktok deal which achieved zero!

Exactly. China is heavily invested in technology and they aim to be the leader in AI in the coming years. Apart from Anti Trust I think data privacy regulations will also erode some of the competitive advantage. The only difference between Google's effort in AI and Apple's is the mountain of data google has about you from all their data mining platforms such as gmail, google photos etc. I am pretty sure if Apple had the same access to data they will be as competitive if not more. Before anyone comes out, I am not saying Apple is the victim here. They have made a business decision and one of their USP is privacy.