Google is blamed by the US DoJ for building and protecting its ads monopoly illegally.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an expected antitrust lawsuit against Google. The complaint has been announced after a year of investigations. The lawsuit stresses that Google maintains “an illegal network of exclusive agreements that harm competitors. It is not the first time that the practices of Google is under close watch and criticism by the authorities.
The Department of Justice and eleven states filed a historic lawsuit Tuesday against Internet giant Google for the alleged monopoly practices of its search engine, which performs 80% of computer searches and 90% of mobile searches.
The lawsuit has been announced after a year of investigations and accuses the company that runs Sundar Pichai of having used illegal actions to occupy a situation of dominance in the market and prevent the access of its competitors (like Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo) to the main distribution channels.
Google ads monopoly stifles the innovation and prevents new players
The Deputy Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Jeffrey Rosen, explained in a telephone press conference that the lawsuit underlines that Google sustains its role as “the main guardian of access” to the Internet through “an illegal network of exclusive agreements that harm competitors.
Among them, he has cited the payment of billions of dollars to Apple to place Google’s search engine as the basic one in its iPhones, and the prohibition to integrate competitors’ engines through special contracts. With these practices, Rosen added, the company “has stifled innovation and the creation of new Google.
Google heavily dominates the search market
The technology giant, a subsidiary of Alphabet and based in Mountain View (California), controls about 80% of computer searches in the U.S., 90% of mobile and tablet searches, and is, along with Facebook, the main dominator of the Internet advertising market.
The legal battle could go on for years, given the great financial muscle of the company, founded in 1998 in Silicon Valley and which is one of the reference technologies that have created the global digital market.
For its part, Google has assured that the lawsuit contains “many flaws” and is based on “dubious antitrust arguments” regarding its commercial strategy to give the search engine a preeminent place in telephones, computers and other devices.
In recent years, the technology giants have faced criticism from different governments and blocks, such as the European Union (EU), due to the amount of power they accumulate, the exorbitant profits they make and the low taxes they impose.
Other large digital conglomerates such as Facebook, Apple or Amazon are being investigated by regulators and legislators, concerned about possible cases of abuse of power.
