Google to face penalty for monopoly power misuse

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Google monopoly misuse litigation judgement

Google loses the antitrust case file by US Department of Justice

What is the Google Antitrust case?

Nearly a quarter-century after Microsoft lost a similar case, a judge’s decision that Google abused a monopoly in internet search is likely to have major ripple effects. Judge Amit P. Mehta of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that Google had violated antitrust laws by stifling rivals in internet search to protect its monopoly.

Judge Mehta found that Google had broken the law through its exclusive deals with Apple, other device makers and browser companies to make Google’s search engine the automatic selection.

In the Google case, as in Microsoft’s, the court found that contracts illegally excluded rivals. But Google’s were more carrot than stick, offering industry partners generous payments rather than threats. Google paid smartphone companies and browser makers more than $26 billion in 2021, according to court testimony, to set its software to automatically handle all search queries.

 

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Why it is similar to Microsoft case?

In the 1990s, Microsoft was the ruling digital platform, with its Windows software controlling the experience of users on more than 90 percent of personal computers. Today, Google has a comparable grip on internet search.

That changed for Microsoft after a judge ruled it was a monopoly. Regulators had brought the suit after the software giant waged a campaign to try to crush an upstart, Netscape, the pioneering commercial browser company. Microsoft bullied PC makers with contracts that effectively stopped them from offering the Netscape browser. Ultimately, Microsoft was prohibited from restricting, in its contracts, the freedom of PC makers to offer other software, and was forced to open up some of its technology. The time, money and management attention spent, as well as the adverse public scrutiny, some antitrust experts say, did have a deterrent effect, moderating the company’s behavior.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act 

What is anti-trust?

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices.

Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices.

The Sherman Anti-trust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts. It was named for Senator John Sherman of Ohio, who was a chairman of the Senate finance committee and the Secretary of the Treasury under President Hayes.

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