A Washington judge has accused Google of monopoly for engaging in a practice involving smartphones of all models and brands. This is not the first time the search engine has been accused of a monopoly.
Google is guilty of monopolistic practices, in particular through contracts requiring its search engine to be used as the default on electronic devices, according to a decision issued on Monday by a judge in Washington.
According to documents seen by AFP, District Judge Amit Mehta said that “after carefully studying testimony and evidence, the court came to this conclusion: Google is a monopoly and acts in a way to maintain that monopoly.”
What is Google accused of?
The Mountain View, California group was accused of spending up to $26 billion last year alone to ensure that its search engine was the default one used on some smartphones and internet browsers. Most of that sum went to Apple.
Specific, Google paid $26 billion last year to remain the search engine that appears automatically on the phones of major global companies or by installing such browsers. An agreement that has allowed him, according to the judge, to “block de facto the opportunities for any other rival to succeed in the market.” Thus, the company can charge higher prices to advertisers who hire its services, reflecting the firm’s monopolistic power.
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“The distribution agreements signed by Google (…) prevent its rivals from competing” against the Californian firm, the judge justified in his decision. The Department of Justice considers that this practice violates the right to competition and that the contracts are illegal, since Google is dominant in the market.
What sentence could Google face?
The judgment does not include any explicit condemnation. From here on A new case will be launched to determine exactly what punishment Google will receive for its behavior.which may be a fine, an order to sell some of your businesses, or even the division of the company into several independent ‘mini-googles’ to create competition in the sector, as happened with the telephone company AT&T or the oil company Standard Oil. The firm owned by Alphabet will surely appeal against a decision that puts its business model at risk and could open the search sector wide open after more than two decades of absolute dominance by the firm founded by Sergei Brin and Larry Page.
Source: Ambito
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