In a groundbreaking case that will begin on Tuesday, the US justice department accuses Google of monopolising the search space.
In a significant antitrust lawsuit, Google is accused of monopolising the online search market, and the trial is set to begin on Tuesday in a Washington district court.
The lawsuit, brought by the US justice department in 2020, is the biggest court case to take on big tech in decades and might be a turning point in the battle against its monopolies.
The justice department has charged Google with using its market dominance to unlawfully exclude competitors and establish itself as the web's gatekeeper. This is the first case the government has filed against Google that will go to trial. The attorneys general of 38 states and territories have filed a separate lawsuit against Google due to monopoly issues in the advertising industry, and the justice department has joined that lawsuit as well.
In both instances, Google has denied any wrongdoing and has not yet responded to requests for comment. The justice department was silent right away.
Judge Amit P. Mehta narrowed the case against Google by tossing out a few of the charges in documents that were unveiled last month, giving the business a small victory. He said that Google was exempt from having to refute claims that the layout of their search results page had hurt competitors like Expedia or Yelp.
Mehta still permitted several of the more important accusations to go through, including crucial assertions that Google's exclusive deals with phone manufacturers allegedly hurt rivals.
According to Mehta, Google will hold about 90% of the market share in 2020, and advertisers would spend more than $80 billion just to target consumers of general search.
The judge ruled that the justice department must prove that each specific conduct, such as how Google manages search advertising, violates antitrust law. As a result, the government cannot demonstrate a series of actions and claim that taken together, they constitute a violation of antitrust law.
Although big tech has mostly escaped harm during the past few decades of unbridled growth, lawsuits like these against Google may signal a turning point. An antitrust lawsuit brought by solicitors general against Meta was dismissed earlier this year. Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission, which recently appointed Lina Khan as its antitrust chief, also sued Amazon.
The outcome of the Google lawsuit, the first significant case of its kind to go to trial, may indicate how far the tides may swing.
source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/11/landmark-google-antitrust-trial-doj