Ecommerce: United States accuses Google of monopoly

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Why the US accuses Google of a monopoly: history of the online giant’s legal battles

A major legal battle is coming, and once again it is aimed squarely at the internet giant: The US Justice Department formally accused Google of a monopoly last Tuesday after a year of investigation.

US accuses Google of monopoly
At a press conference, US Justice Department Deputy Prosecutor Jeffrey Rosen commented that the lawsuit accusing Google of a monopoly is based on the fact that the internet giant “supports its role as the main guardian of access to internet through an illegal network of exclusive agreements that harms competitors ”.

In their investigations, authorities noted that Google has paid billions of dollars to Apple to make its search engine default on iPhone devices, as well as a ban on integrating third-party search engines through special contracts, and with these practices “Innovation and the creation of new ‘Google’ have been stifled.”

Currently Google is by far the most used search engine in the world: in the United States alone it controls about 80% of Internet searches, and precisely this lack of competition is the cornerstone by which Google is accused of a monopoly .

“Competitors are denied product distribution, scale and recognition, ensuring that they do not have a real opportunity to challenge Google,” the complaint added. in fact the authorities affirm that “it is so dominant that“ Google ”is not only a noun to identify the company and its search engine, but also a verb that means to search the internet”.

Google claims it is a deeply flawed claim
Google has not taken long to launch a response to this lawsuit for monopolistic practices in the United States, and it has done so through Kent Walker, senior vice president of Global Affairs at Google who assured that “the demand of the Department of Justice is deeply wrong. People use Google because they choose to do so, not because they are forced or because there are no other alternatives, “in his statement.

“We are confident that the court will conclude that this lawsuit is not in line with the facts or the law,” says Walker, adding that “On the contrary, it will artificially support lower quality search alternatives, increase mobile prices and make obtaining the search services that people want to use ”.

The long list of legal battles against Google
While this accusation is one of the most significant antitrust actions taken by the US government, it is not by far the first time that this company and other tech giants have been accused of such practices.

Speaking specifically of Google, in 2016 the company was indicted by the European Commission for abusing its dominant position in search, charges to which were added monopolistic practices in its price comparison service and abuse of its dominant position by forcing the Manufacturers and mobile operators that operate under their Android operating system to install their services by default.

These accusations became the highest sanction in history for antitrust practices in 2017, when the European Union fined Google 2.42 billion euros for abusing its dominance in the search engine market.

Regarding the accusation about forcing manufacturers and operators of Android devices to install their services by default, the European Union sanctioned Google with 4,343 million euros in 2018, in addition to prohibiting the company to continue with these practices … at least in the European Union.

In April 2019, the idealo price comparator joined the accusations against Google of a monopoly, and presented before the Berlin Regional Court a claim for damages worth almost 500 million euros for favoring its own price comparison service , a demand whose importance grows if one takes into account the weight of idealo in the European market: one of the most important online price comparators in the region with more than 20 million visits in 2018.

In fact, the United States had already set its eyes on Google for monopolistic practices in 2019, when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice began their investigation of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, known by their acronym GAFA, a process that joined those carried out against Amazon, Apple and Facebook and that apparently will continue, at least until clear legislation on fair and free competition is achieved in a market in which the technological giants increasingly encompass more market.