The US Justice Department’s complaint that the tech giant has monopolised the web is too little, too late
So, in the dying days of Trump’s first term, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has finally taken
Google to court. Attorney general
William Barr, in conjunction with the AGs of 11 states, has filed a 58-page complaint under the Sherman Act “to restrain Google LLC (Google) from unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising and general search text advertising in the
United States through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices, and to remedy the effects of this conduct”.
Google’s initial response was predictable: a blog post headed “A deeply flawed lawsuit that would do nothing to help consumers”. The DoJ’s lawsuit, apparently, “is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives.” There then follow useful animated gifs showing how easy it is to change your preferred search engine on your phone etc. But of course there’s no mention of the anticompetitive behaviour cited in the government’s suit.