The courts have considered Google’s request to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit regarding its search engine – one that would break down Google’s core service to spice up online competition. In a summary judgment filing filed Dec. 12, the corporate says the criticism misrepresents its agreements with browser makers and Android phone makers, which unfairly penalizes its success. “Requiring Google to not compete vigorously – or requiring browser makers to revamp their products and provides their customers a poorer experience,” he says, “would turn competition law on its head.”
US Department of Justice and Coalition of State Attorneys General sued Google in 2020, a part of a multi-pronged approach to limit the web giant’s power. (The state and federal lawsuits were filed individually but largely consolidated.) Latest Complaint claims that Google has used its current power and the Android operating system to lock down the search market by denying competitors “substantial distribution, scale and product recognition”. It seeks structural changes that will limit Google’s power over latest entities.
Moderately edited short google arguments that its search offerings – including agreements with Mozilla and Apple to offer Google Search of their browsers – don’t prevent users from trying other serps and are simply the results of Google outperforming its competitors. “No evidence suggests that Google forced Apple, Mozilla, or every other browser developer to adopt a single default search engine design,” the documentation states. Similarly, he argues that his contracts with Android phone manufacturers should not exclusivity contracts. in a separate Colorado suitdenies unlawfully matching its search results with specialized “vertical” serps equivalent to Yelp, which has persistently argued that Google favors its own services.
Google Search has been subject to ongoing antitrust scrutiny in Europe, which has taken a more proactive approach to antitrust motion. Last yr, the General Court of the European Union upheld a high quality of €4.125 billion (around $4.4 billion) for imposing “illegal restrictions” on Android phone makers in an effort to consolidate their search engine dominance. It was previously censored for demoting a rival shopping search engine by itself service, which Google claimed it did to scale back low-quality results.
In the United States, a greater push for fundamental antitrust reform — and possibly creating more legal risk for giant tech corporations — fizzled out in late 2022.
However, Google and government agencies proceed to argue over whether the corporate violated applicable law. The company is fighting a separate lawsuit alleging it used anticompetitive practices to dominate the ad technology field, though a judge in September dropped the lawsuit, dismissing claims that Google and Facebook colluded to repair the market. A more recent lawsuit accuses Google of abusing its power over the Android Google Play store – referring to an ongoing high-profile case brought by Fortnite Epic Games developer.
