DOJ, 11 States Slap Google With Antitrust Lawsuit

The federal court docket, which surfaced Tuesday, didn’t itemize details of the case, but according to earlier media reports that day, Google is accused of engaging in anticompetitive tactics to preserve its search and advertising businesses and block competition.

Shortly after, a blog post followed, penned by Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs for Google. He wrote, “This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use.”Walker characterized the case as a “dubious complaint” targeting Google’s efforts to make its search product widely available to the public.

The suit amounts to an escalation of a long-understood threat to Silicon Valley’s business practices by governmental agencies, regulators and elected officials in the U.S. and abroad. Google and other tech giants have grabbed the attention of antitrust watchdogs in Europe and, most recently, Japan for various business practices, from its approach to search and advertising to acquisitions, primarily its current $2.1 billion bid to buy wearable-tech company Fitbit.

Alphabet chief executive officer Sundar Pichai has testified before Congress multiple times covering everything from alleged anticompetitive practices to newer accusations of political bias in its products and platforms. The questioning homed in on some of tech’s most controversial issues, which vary for each company. Members of the House Judiciary Committee grilled Amazon about how it deals with third-party sellers in its marketplace; Facebook for its platform policies on misinformation and moderation, or even censorship, along with whether it acquired Instagram and WhatsApp on an anticompetitive basis, and Apple on whether it unfairly stymies developers whose apps compete with its own.

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