Posted on 10/20/2020 6:56:20 AM PDT by RandFan
Attorney General William Barr is set to file suit against Google today for illegal monopolization of the search and ad markets, kicking off one of the largest antitrust cases in US history. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the case will focus on search and search-focused advertising, rather than the companys broader targeted ad business.
According to the Journals sources, the Justice Department will allege that Google is maintaining its status as gatekeeper to the internet through an unlawful web of exclusionary and interlocking business agreements that shut out competitors.
Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen has announced a briefing later this morning, which is likely to provide more details on the case.
The case is one of the most ambitious antitrust actions ever undertaken against a tech company, drawing together parallel investigations from the Department of Justice and a range of state attorneys general. The Department of Justice briefed state AGs on the case at the end of September, according to a report from The Washington Post. More than 10 state attorneys general are expected to sign onto the case, per the Journal, but others are likely to file separate antitrust charges.
Google has faced antitrust action before, but never on this scale. The most significant investigation concluded in 2013, when the company changed its AdSense policies to resolve a Federal Trade Commission investigation without formal legal action. Google has also faced a string of fines from regulators in the European Union, including 1.5 billion over its AdSense policy, 4.3 billion over software bundling in Android, and 2.4 billion for manipulating shopping results in Google search.
(Excerpt) Read more at theverge.com ...
I dunno, demand lower biasing fees for their anti Trump disinformation efforts?
Just don’t use Google Search.
I may be wrong, but that’s the point. Every Search that I know of uses google in some way or another.
I use StartPage and I love it. It’s very private, but I questioned them at one point and they admitted that they use google for some information.
At least I’m not hit with google’s first five or more preferences to a question and I appreciate that, but
GOOGLE is always there hiding, disguising itself and inserting itself into the mix.
If I haven’t mentioned it lately, let me repeat:
I HATE, LOATHE AND DESPISE ...GOOGLE. And I would love to see it broken up or destroyed.
Ma Bell and Standard Oil grins
Much much easier to break up Google than to break up AT&T or Standard Oil both of which were broken up for far less crimes than Google is committing. Google makes AT&T look like the Boys Scouts.
Its their voluntary customer base that makes them dominant over others, not monopolistic practices.
While that may have been true when Google was founded, its certainly not true now. Google have used their monopoly to crush competitors and strong arm those who use Adsense.
The EU has already imposed huge fines on Google for exactly such abuses.
Bing doesn’t.
AT&T and Standard Oil made it physically difficult to choose alternatives, because there were physically limited options.
ANYONE can use DuckDuckGo, Gab, Locals, etc with just a few keystrokes.
A Google breakup would have to separate search from authentication from mail from document storage from apps from Android from YouTube from advertising from ... which still leaves search as the dominant & manipulable search mechanism. There isn’t a sane & legal way to break up Google as a search engine per se.
Catch is: everything Google does feeds Adsense. Search is just a means to gather user data to mine & target advertising with, as is everything else Google does as free services. Can’t break up search; that & rest exist as cost centers serving the Adsense profit center. Only thing feds can do to “break Google” is end the heavy-handed “use this other Google service too” tactics that tie people into the ecosystem.
I don’t much care what EU did about Google - or anything. EU governance axiom is totalitarian, and it shows.
“The DOJ argues that Google has entered into exclusionary contracts with phone makers to preload its search engine onto devices using Alphabets Android operating system.
Those contracts have allowed Google to maintain a monopoly while stifling competition and innovation, the suit contends. It also accuses Google of using profits from that monopoly to buy preferential treatment for its search engine on web browsers, including Safari.”
Meh.
Easily overcome. Upon first booting the device, show a list of search engines - sorted by popularity (only fair & sensible, right?) - for the user to pick a default.
Microsoft faced essentially the same thing, with a similar workaround. Still intact.
The EU countries are every bit as Democratic as the US. The only reason the US never brought anti trust action against Google was because Steve Schmidt (then Google CEO) visited the Obama White House over 50 times and he and Google made massive contributions to Obama’s campaigns. Obama and Biden were totally corrupt.
I understand that Duck Duck Go even uses the Google search but does not track you.
Bing / Microsoft are doing much the same thing as google in filtering and tracking data.
I’d like to see them all ripped to shreds and forced divestiture like the Standard Oil Company. They are on the same scale but more intrusive and just as monopolistic.
You make my point. Google hands over $billions, hires talented lawyers to talk the case to death, accept “oversight” for 4 years (neuter the next administration), and otherwise remains intact.
Hate to sound contrary, but I no likee Bing.
Bing gives you the option of opting out of being tracked. They need the customers. They can’t afford to Alienate their customers. Unlike Google which is a monopoly and abuses their customers.
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