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Jim Young / Reuters
Unsurprisingly, the US Department of Justice, on the eve of the US elections, sued Google for violating fair competition. Google has been found to have unfair and exclusive behavior in both search and search-related ads, but at the same time, the Ministry of Justice has also criticized Google’s practices on the Android system. Please note that Google forces mobile phone companies to preload Google software and Set Google as the default search engine.
In the complaint, the Justice Department found that Google paid mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung every year; “Billions of US dollars” to guarantee their pre-established search engine status and prevent them from operating with competition from Google.
On the other hand, Google strongly denies the accusations of the Department of Justice, stating that people use Google to search by free choice and are not obliged, nor is it because Google uses means to prevent other competitors from overtaking. Although Google controls Android and Chrome, it is still limited by Apple, which can freely determine the default search engine, and telecommunications and mobile companies that customize their own software.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the current first stage is to prove that Google is indeed guilty, so the Ministry of Justice has not yet proposed specific sanctions and they will not be raised until the lawsuit progresses for a while. Possible penalties include fines, restriction, or division of Google’s search and advertising business. It’s too early to talk about the specific methods, and there are still several years to go before the dust settles. This is the largest anti-competitive lawsuit since the Ministry of Justice sued Microsoft in 1998 to promote its own software (such as IE) with the exclusive status of Windows. The original judge asked Microsoft to split in two, but it was successfully closed in 2001 with an appeal from Microsoft. . This time the Ministry of Justice sued Google, also citing cases from that year.
However, compared to the previous year, it is more difficult to say that Google has deliberately anti-competitive behavior, especially in the search area, it is also quite difficult to say that Google has “competitors”, even if it is the efforts of Microsoft, only can pull Bing at best. At about 6% of the market share, compared to Google’s 87%, not even at the end. Also, if the proposal is made before the elections, it will inevitably be considered an electoral consideration and it is easy to change course. If the next president is replaced, the direction of the Ministry of Justice will change accordingly, either. It’s hard to say that it takes Google’s case so seriously.
