The Trump administration is expected to sue Google on Tuesday, October 20, according to two people familiar with the matter, in what is the largest antitrust case against a tech company in more than two decades.
In its complaint, the Justice Department (DOJ) is expected to make sweeping allegations that Google has stifled competition to maintain its powerful position in the marketplace for online search, reported the Wall Street Journal.
The Department will allege that Google is maintaining its status as gatekeeper to the internet through an unlawful web of exclusionary and interlocking business agreements that shut out competitors, officials said. The government will allege that Google uses billions of dollars collected from advertisements on its platform to pay mobile-phone manufacturers, carriers, and browsers, like Apple’s Safari, to maintain Google as their preset, default search engine.
The landmark federal complaint follows a year-long antitrust probe by DOJ investigators. And it comes on the heels of a major congressional report finding that Google and other tech giants enjoy “monopoly power” and have wielded their dominance in anticompetitive ways. That report alleges that Amazon has mistreated third-party sellers; that Apple’s app store fees and policies are anti-competitive; and that Facebook has sought to eliminate future rivals through targeted acquisitions.
