Washington sues Google for monopoly position

The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Google for anticompetitive practices.

Anthony Ha reported the news for TechCrunch:

The suit accuses Google of “unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising in the United States.” It’s co-signed by 11 states, all with Republican attorneys general — Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana and South Carolina.

Allana Akhtar and Hugh Langley from Business Insider wrote:

Google is the first tech giant to see major antitrust action since the US government went to battle with Microsoft in the late ’90s. It’s also not the only company being probed over antitrust concerns. Earlier this month, House Democrats concluded a yearslong investigation, accusing four of the biggest tech companies — Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google’s parent company, Alphabet — of monopoly power.

Paresh Dave and Jonathan Stempel from Reuters noted:

To win, the U.S. Department of Justice must prove that Google gained or maintained monopoly power through abusive conduct, or something beyond competition on the merits.

Several legal experts said Google’s alleged misconduct appears similar to allegations the government leveled in the 1990s against Microsoft Corp MSFT.O . That landmark case was settled in 2002, and a consent decree required the maker of the Windows operating system to stop retaliating against computer makers that used non-Microsoft software.