Justice Dept. to file landmark antitrust case against Google

The Associated Press ^ | October 20, 2020 | By MICHAEL BALSAMO and MARCY GORDON

[Oldeconomybuyer]

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that Google has been abusing its dominance in online search to stifle competition and harm consumers, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The litigation marks the government’s most significant act to protect competition since its groundbreaking case against Microsoft more than 20 years ago. The suit could be an opening salvo ahead of other major government antitrust actions, given ongoing investigations of major tech companies including Apple, Amazon and Facebook at both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission.

The case is expected to be filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., and will allege Google has been abusing its dominance in online search to stifle competition and harm consumers, the person familiar with the matter told the AP. It will also allege that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisers to pay phone manufacturers to ensure Google is the default search engine on browsers, the person said. The person could not discuss the matter publicly before a formal announcement expected later Tuesday morning and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.

Google controls about 90% of global web searches. The company has been bracing for the government’s action and is expected to fiercely oppose any attempt to force it to spin off its services into separate businesses.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[HighSierra5]

His bagpipes must be in the shop for repairs.

[FLT-bird]

Hallelujah!

It’s long past time. Bust them up. Force Alphabet to give off YouTube and bust up Google itself. Alphabet is by far the worst of the illegal Big Tech monopolies.

Move on to Facebook, Twitter and Amazon next.

[Who is John Galt?]

I only use Google as a last resort - just about any search engine (including Duck Duck Go ;^) pops up what I’m looking for on the first pass. There’s no real need to support ANY company that pushes socialism (i.e., Google, Target, Facebook, etc.), especially when they’re offering a corrupt/biased product...

[George from New England]

Unfortunately, most other search engines just tap on google and modify the results a bit. Some may cleanse crap coming back from google at the same time.

[Who is John Galt?]

IIRC, Bing is independent of Google, and is the second most popular search engine, with less than 5% of the market. Kind of highlights the defacto Google monopoly...