Game Over? US Looking at Google’s Longtime Monopoly
Vivian Haas
International Business Writer
The United States government has started an antitrust lawsuit against Google due to controversy against its extremely popular search engine. The antitrust lawsuit is against Google because of their actions of protecting their monopoly by crushing competitor companies. Google, which controls about 90% of the online search market, has been accused of using its power to direct users away from the competition. Before the U.S started its lawsuit against Google, the company has already experienced similar cases through the European Union.
The European Union competition commissioner, Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, has charged Google with three multibillion-dollar penalties. In 2017, Google was charged with its first antitrust penalty and was fined 2.42 billion euros ($2.72 billion) for directing users to its own online shopping websites and burying competitors. The investigation found that Google unfairly directed visitors away from its rivals in order to increase its profits. In addition, Google was fined again in 2018 for 4.34 billion euros for forcing smartphone makers to install Google search and browser apps– and in 2019, Google was fined 1.49 billion Euros for freezing out rivals in the online advertising business. Despite Google remedying the mistakes that they were charged for, their rivals are still struggling to restore competition. Since Google remedied the matters they were fined for, the European Union did not create a remedy to restore competition, resulting in Google still being a prominent figure in Europe.
Finally, after years of monopolization, the U.S government is finally investigating Google to determine if the company is using its power to skew search results to favor its own products. The government is looking into how to limit Google’s power in the search market in order to bring back competition and break down the monopoly. On Tuesday October 20th, the U.S government officially sued Google in what is the largest antitrust case against a tech company in more than two decades. The looming case could negatively affect Googles’ advertising business as well as its profitable search engine.
With the federal case proceeding, eleven states have also joined the lawsuit claiming that Google has harmed competition and purposefully redirected viewers from rivals. While the case continues to proceed, the main goal is prevent Google from extending its monopoly and encourage competitor companies back into the market.
Contact Vivian at haasvivi@shu.edu