The U.S. vs Google
According to the article, there has been some suspicious accusations against google, which led to 48 states (including DC and Puerto Rico) launched an investigation into Google. The allegations were that google was/is violating antitrust laws. Antitrust laws are laws developed by the government to protect consumers from predatory business practices. They ensure that fair competition exists in an open-market economy. The point of this is to keep businesses from lowering the price on their products to ruin the business of competition, while saving consumers money and keeps businesses from taking away benefits. There are three anti-trust laws: The Sherman Antitrust Act, The Clayton Act, and The Federal Trade Commission Act. The articles says that the investigation will focus on determining whether Google is overly dominant online, mostly in the advertising market and when searches are made on the internet. This is not the first time that Google has been questioned. In 2007, google was fined 1.7 billion dollars under the claim of unfairly inserted exclusivity clauses into contracts with companies that advertised through Google. This was a violation because it was a clear disadvantage for the companies that can’t afford it. The outcome that the article gives is to force Google to spin off search as a separate company. The idea is to limit their control so that they stop violating the antitrust laws. Currently Google controls 31% of global digital ad dollars, which is why they have to power to add the unfair charges. That is also why, some of the control needs to be taken away, so that it is more fair and consumers are protected.
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