Google became a participant in a serious case, in connection with which the trial began on September 12. The plaintiff is the US Department of Justice. Experts believe that this could be the end of the Google era and completely change the IT industry.
The company is accused of:
– unlawful restriction of competitors due to a dominant position in the market;
– violations in the field of advertising control.
Google itself believes that it is not to blame.
The essence of the question
To make it clearer, it is necessary to explain what the corporation is doing wrong according to the plaintiffs. The accusation indicates that the company pays billions of dollars each year to have it installed as default on the following devices:
– smartphones;
– tablets.
Thus, it prevents users from accessing the advertisements of their competitors. However, the main thing is that Google forces its partners to sign agreements that contain clauses prohibiting cooperation with other search engines.
It should be noted that this technique is effective because the name of the company has even turned into a verb that means searching for some information on the Internet. In 2020, Google’s share of the search market was 90%.
Is success possible?
The judge emphasized that such actions suppress competition and, therefore, are illegal. However, it is not so easy to prove it, and what the court’s decision will be is a big question. In addition, many distrust the result because lawsuits involving giant companies are always associated with various manipulations, pressure, etc.
