Three cheers for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Let justice be done though the heavens fall. From The New York Times:
‘Google Is a Monopolist,’ Judge Rules in Landmark Antitrust Case
The ruling on Google’s search dominance was the first antitrust decision of the modern internet era in a case against a technology giant.
Reporting from Washington
The Justice Department has sued Apple, arguing that the company made it difficult for consumers to ditch the iPhone, and brought another case against Google — focused on its advertising technology — that is set to go to trial in September. The F.T.C. has separately sued Meta, claiming the company stamped out nascent competitors, and Amazon, accusing it of squeezing sellers on its online marketplace.
“It’s a very prominent test of the Biden administration’s new antitrust enforcement agenda,” said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt University’s law school.
With those cases, the government is testing hundred-year-old laws originally used to rein in utility and other monopolistic companies like Standard Oil.
A victory for the government provides credibility for its broader attempt to use antitrust laws to take aim at corporate America, said William Kovacic, a former chairman of the F.T.C.
“It creates momentum that supports their other cases,” he said in an interview in June.
Google has also faced antitrust scrutiny in Europe, where officials charged the company last year with undermining rivals in online advertising.
The last major U.S. court ruling on a tech antitrust case — in the Justice Department’s 1990s lawsuit against Microsoft — cast its own shadow over the Google arguments. Judge Mehta repeatedly pressed lawyers to explain how the specifics of the case against Google could fit into the legal precedents.
The Microsoft antitrust case alleged that the tech giant combined practices like bullying industry partners and leveraging the popularity of its digital platform, from which users typically didn’t switch, to stifle competition.
A District Court judge initially ruled against Microsoft on most counts of possible antitrust violations and ordered a breakup of the company, but an appeals court reversed some of those decisions. President George W. Bush’s administration settled with the company in 2001.
Steve Lohr contributed reporting from New York.
David McCabe is a Times reporter who covers the complex legal and policy issues created by the digital economy and new technologies. More about David McCabe
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