Welcome to TP1! Every week this term we will be addressing an issue ripped from the day’s headlines and what better way to start then focusing on recent developments regarding the growing number of lawsuits against Google?
This past August, deciding a case originally brought by the US government at the very end of the Trump Administration, a judge found that Google had broken US antitrust law by paying tens of billions of dollars to become the default search engine on multiple platforms (notably on Apple products).
As a result, on Tuesday, the US Department of Justice announced it was “considering behavioral and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search.” Such structural remedies could include selling off specific products or otherwise breaking up Google.
In September, a judge in Virginia began to hear a second case brought by the US government against Google — this time regarding its effort to corner the market on digital advertising.
The potential breakup was not even the only Google news this week! The day before the DOJ announcement, a third US judge ordered Google to open up its Play store to rival firms after losing a lawsuit to Epic Games (makers of Fortnite).
Despite the dramatic developments and the multiple lawsuits, investors do not appear overly worried. So that leaves us with a few questions:
(1) Why has it taken so long for the US government to bring suit against Google, which has been so dominant in online search for so many years?
(2) This is is part of an effort by the US government to deal with a US-based firm. What are the implications for other countries and other Big Tech firms? (We will return to European regulation of Big Tech in TP6 in Easter term since the EU has brought multiple suits against Google on many of these same issues over the past decade)
(3) Will governments be successful in their efforts to rein in Big Tech? Why or why not?