The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming that Google has maintained a monopoly in search services and text advertising through "anticompetitive practices."
The suit comes after a judge ruled in August that Google exploited its dominance to squash competition.
"Google’s exclusionary conduct has, among other things, made Google the near universal default for search and ensured that virtually all search access points route users’ valuable queries and interaction data to Google," the DOJ said in its suit. "Google’s unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways. Google’s conduct has resulted in significant anticompetitive effects—causing 'market foreclosure,' 'preventing rivals from achieving scale,' and 'diminishing the incentives of rivals to invest and innovate.'”
The Department of Justice was joined by dozens of states as co-plaintiffs. In response to the August ruling, the DOJ suggested that Google sell its Chrome web browser and relinquish control of Android as a remedy.
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"Google’s ownership and control of Chrome and Android—key methods for the distribution of search engines to consumers—poses a significant challenge to effectuate a remedy that aims to “unfetter [these] market[s] from anticompetitive conduct” and “ensure that there remain no practices likely to result in monopolization in the future," the DOJ's lawsuit says.
In response to the DOJ's lawsuit, Google said that prosecutors could have proposed other remedies, such as search distribution agreements with Apple and other smartphone makers.
"Instead, DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership," Google said in a statement. "DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives."
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Google added that losing control of Chrome and Android would "endanger the security and privacy" of millions of Americans and chill its investment in artificial intelligence.
"DOJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most," Google said.
Statcounter estimates that Google accounts for about 90% of all internet searches. Bing is second, drawing a mere 4% of web searches.
