DOJ Lawsuit Accuses Google of Search Monopoly

The United States and 11 states have filed a Google monopoly lawsuit accusing the tech company of unlawfully blocking search engine results from rival companies.

According to the U.S. lawsuit, Google violated the federal Sherman Act by maintaining its monopolies through “anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.” The country is joined in the lawsuit by Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas.

The Google monopoly lawsuit characterizes the Google of two decades ago as a “scrappy startup” with innovative ideas about the emerging internet.

Now, that Google is allegedly “long gone” with the modern company acting as a “monopoly gatekeeper for the internet.” In fact, Google is now one of the wealthiest companies in the world with a market value of $1 trillion.

Unfortunately, according to the federal lawsuit, Google has secured its success in part through unlawful monopolies.

In order to secure the company’s position as the default general search engine for mobile and computer applications, Google allegedly entered into exclusionary agreements to guarantee that consumers would use Google search engines by default on their devices and web browsers. Under these deals, Google allegedly pays billions of dollars every year to device manufacturers like Apple, LG, Motorola and Samsung; major U.S. wireless carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon; and to browser developers such as Mozilla, Opera and UCWeb.

Through these exclusionary agreements, Google allegedly secures just under 60% of all search queries. Of the remaining search queries, half are funneled through Google’s Chrome browser or other Google-operated properties. Between their agreements and their own operations, Google’s monopoly allegedly covers around 80% of general search queries in the United States. This includes nearly 90% of search engine queries and nearly 95% of mobile device queries.

“Google has thus foreclosed competition for internet search. General search engine competitors are denied vital distribution, scale, and product recognition — ensuring they have no real chance to challenge Google,” the Google monopoly lawsuit contends.

“Google is so dominant that ‘Google’ is not only a noun to identify the company and the Google search engine but also a verb that means to search the internet.”

Through search advertising and general search text advertising, Google has allegedly translated its monopoly to significant monetary profits.

Advertisers in the United States reportedly pay around $40 billion each year to place ads on Google’s search engine results. In return for entering into exclusionary agreements, the partners listed above are allegedly given portion of this revenue — incentivizing distributers to switch to using exclusively Google search engines.

These practices serve to strengthen Google’s hold on the tech sector. However, according to the Google monopoly lawsuit, these actions are anticompetitive and unlawful because they significantly limit the ability for rival companies to succeed or even enter the market.

According to the government’s lawsuit, part of the issue is the massive scale of Google’s reach. Through the massive influx of searches Google engines handle each day, the complex algorithms governing searches and advertising are able to better respond to new queries.

Google’s former CEO reportedly acknowledged that “scale is the key” to the company’s massive success in search engines. The volume, variety and velocity of data received by Google through these searches allows the company to better adapt to consumer needs.

However, the Google monopoly allegedly denies competitors the ability to innovate by locking down the scale of searches needed for development.

“If the government does not enforce the antitrust laws to enable competition, we could lose the next wave of innovation. If that happens, Americans may never get to see the next Google,” Deputy attorney general Jeffrey Rosen said in a statement, according to NPR.

The federal Google monopoly lawsuit seeks a court order restraining the tech company from continued anticompetitive actions. Without this order, Google will allegedly continue to cripple the competitive process, reduce consumer choice and stifle innovation.

Although federal authorities say the lawsuit will help enforce antitrust laws and enable healthy competition, Google has denied the allegations and called the suit “deeply flawed.”

“People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives,” Google senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker said in a blog post.

Share your thoughts on the alleged Google monopoly in the comment section below.

The U.S. and participating states are represented by their respective attorneys general and other justice department representatives.

The Google Monopoly Lawsuit is United States of America, et al. v. Google LLC, Case No. 1:20-cv-03010, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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