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The US government sued Google on Tuesday in what would be the largest antitrust case in decades and a major test for the tech industry.
A judicial source familiar with the matter confirmed the case was being shelved, after the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported that the Justice Department’s lawsuit will accuse the California tech giant of illegal monopoly behavior to preserve its dominance. in Internet search and advertising.
The move comes after months of investigations by federal and state antitrust agents seeking to verify the power of the massive tech firm and parallel polls at other giants such as Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
It was not immediately clear what remedy the government was seeking in the lawsuit, which could take years to resolve. But it could force changes in business practices or break segments of Google’s empire.
Google and other Big Tech firms have come under pressure from both the political right and left in recent years.
Progressives have claimed that mass firms have stifled competition and exacerbated economic inequality. A recent House of Representatives report suggested that Google and others should split up to preserve competition. Conservatives have accused the internet giants of political bias, although the evidence has been scant.
A longtime Big Tech critic, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, said the case would be “the largest antitrust lawsuit in a generation” and welcomed the Justice Department move.
Google, the main unit of Alphabet holding, operates the dominant search engine used in most of the world and a variety of related services, such as maps, email, advertising and shopping. It also operates the Android mobile operating system used in most smartphones around the world.
Google has received heavy fines in the European Union for unfair competition and has challenged those cases. The company has consistently denied allegations of monopoly abuse.
News reports said 11 states, all led by Republican attorneys general, were joining the US lawsuit, suggesting a political divide in the case just two weeks before the November election.
Michael Carrier, a Rutgers University law professor who specializes in antitrust matters, said the case could seek to force Google to remove some of its software from Android phones and, in that sense, would be similar to Microsoft’s case of the 1990s, where customers were forced to use proprietary programs.
But Carrier said the filing just two weeks before the election without Democratic-controlled states “raises the possibility that political concerns are playing a role here.”
