On Tuesday, The United
States Department of Justice sued Google, accusing it to have abused its power
in a fashion that harmed its competitors as well as the customers and users.
According to the long-expected lawsuit, 11 US states have joined hands with the
DoJ charged Google for maintaining a monopoly in general search services and
search advertisements through illegal means. 

Deputy Attorney General
of the DoJ, Jeffery A. Rosen stated that the business practices maintained by
Google have given shape to massive concentrations of economic power within a
few companies, like Google itself. As of now, the focus is on Google, because
it is believed to be the gateway to the internet as well as a search
advertising goliath.

What exactly did the
lawsuit claim? Well, the statement concluded that Google harms its competition by
paying other companies millions of dollars to hierarchize its search engine
rituals. Furthermore, it restricts other companies by pushing its search tools
on top whenever consumers browse the internet.

“Google
achieved some success in its early years, and no one begrudges that, but, as
the antitrust complaint filed today explains, it has maintained its monopoly
power through exclusionary practices that harm competition. So the Justice
Department has determined that an antitrust response is necessary to benefit
consumers.” – The statement reads.

This battle is going to
last years, to say the least, as it’s complicated with both parties having
immense control and power in the world in general. Google has vehemently denied
the accusations and claimed that the case is entirely flawed.

Source: South China Morning Post

We’ve always known that
most Google practices are questionable, so why exactly has the DoJ made the
allegations now? Well, do you recall that time when Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff
Bezos, Tim Cook, and Sundar Pichai were summoned by the administration? Well, the
US House of Representatives panel submitted an investigation report of
bipartisan involving Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook. These companies have
been on the radar in many countries and have gained the reputation of
destroying their competitors by either buying the rivals or forcing the vendors
to stop working with them.

Also, as per the DoJ
lawsuit, Google has strange contracts with other major companies. For instance,
Google would remunerate Apple approximately $8 to $12 billion a year with the
agreement to make Google search the default on Apple devices. In addition,
Pichai and Cook met to brainstorm ways to drive revenue by continuing strategic
business.

According to aconversation
between employees of Google and Apple, they intend to work as if they’re part
of the same company.

Do you know that, last
year, half of Google’s traffic came from Apple’s devices?

The hearing date has
not been announced as of yet, but the judge who’ll handle this case has been
selected. Apparently, US district judge, Amit Mehta is down for the job – he
also has experience in a similar case and was named to the court by Barack
Obama. Usually, anti-trust cases are not commonly found, but Amit had
previously ruled to block the merger between two food distributors.

It’s essential to
realize that this case will play a fundamental role in the coming few years.
First of all, it is the biggest antitrust case that has taken place in the last
couple of decades. It can be compared to the lawsuit that was filed against
Microsoft in 1998, and to a certain extent to the case against AT&T in 1974,
which obviously ended up breaking the Bell system. 

People have highlighted
this case’s similarities with the Microsoft cases for a reason: Like, if you
remember, Microsoft was accused of shutting down channels for Netscape, and now
look at Google, it’s following the same path. Silicon Valley isn’t really the
only place that knows cloning of successful products!

When Microsoft got
sued, other firms took over and Google was one of them. You can say that, if
Google goes down, other tech firms like Bing and DuckDuckGo can take the lead.
They’ve been in the game long enough to understand the dynamics. Therefore, if
the prosecutors find anything monumental against Google, these companies are
likely to be the beneficiaries.

Now, here’s the real
question: How can the US Department of Justice prove that Google monopolizes
and abuses its power? How can they prove with evidence that Google is not part
of a healthy race but it’s gone far and beyond to restrict its competitors by
forming alliances with other major companies like Apple?

Some experts predict
that Google would likely make a case for itself by elaborating self-importance.
For example, it would bite tooth and nail to showcase that the consumers prefer
it over its rivals and that no one should undermine the company’s power by
suggesting that its market is considerably narrow.

In defense, several
experts have questioned why – why does Google have such a large share in the
market?

Of course, Ken Walker,
the Chief Legal Officer of Google has argued that “People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced
to, or because they can’t find alternatives.”

In addition, Google
said that it does have a strong competitor in the market in the shape of
Amazon. It is being speculated that Google will likely choose a global network
of lawyers and lobbyist to fight this legal battle.

The Democratic
lawmakers have also questioned Google and accused the company of monopoly over
online search and advertisements.

Recent changes have
compelled us to question the long term and short term impact in case the
administration changes:

Source: New York Post 

Some people believe
that the federal government is not going to back down at any cost. On the
contrary, if Biden wins against Trump in the elections, he will most likely
hold a stronger opposition.  

The reason is simple:
Currently, there are too many points of view and
unnecessary baggage. With a new administration, everything will begin with a
clean slate, thereby all of the actions will orchestrate far more efficiently.

However, change will
not occur overnight.

“The
lawsuit will likely take years to be argued in court, and at this stage, the
DoJ is not proposing any extreme remedial action, such as breaking apart the
company. With over $120bn of cash, Alphabet is financially able to fight the
allegations and pay fines that might result from any government actions.”
– said Dave Heger, who is an analyst at a financial services firm.