Google, the Alphabet owned company, has been facing legal troubles with the government of the United States. The Department of Justice claimed s a result of an investigation that the US based tech giant had been using anticompetitive strategies to claim the search engine market. They were also allegedly using unfair procedures to promote their advertising sector. There are two separate lawsuits against the Sundar Pichai led company for the violation of antitrust rules in its advertising and search domain. In January, the government filed the lawsuit against the company with the initial support from eight US states. Yesterday, on April 17th, nine other states also reached the same conclusions as the Department of Justice and have joined the lawsuit against Google.
The antitrust lawsuit concerning the search engine:
Google is the most used search engine throughout the world. Whether you use an ios device or an android, you are definitely familiar with the brand. The tech goliath owns the android operating system, so it appears fair that the browser has been set as default in all android devices, but ios devices too have Google as their primary search. Why does Apple have Google as the default search engine in Safari?
The lawsuit cited a deal between Google and Apple which results in Google being used in ios devices. Apparently, the Alphabet owned tech giant paid millions of dollars to Apple to be their priority search engine. Although the Department of Justice sees the arrangement as an unfair set up, the Pichai led company has claimed it to be an arrangement for exchange of finances between the firms and a completely legal collaboration of two successful companies.
Google is also under scrutiny because of other deals that it struck with major tech companies. As part of its deals with Samsung and other smartphone manufacturing companies, Google paid them hefty funds to be their default search engine. This further increased the intensity of allegations against the company.
These deals have been cited as unfair attempts to maintain dominance in their sector. The Department of Justice also argued that such practices would limit innovation in the market and would leave everyone with limited options to choose from. Another major problem that exists with Google being the primary search engine would be the enormous amounts of data that it collects from its users. Although the company claims that the information is used to provide its users with a better experience, other search engines could provide similar results which are usually as good as Google with just little information from the user. Other search engines could therefore be a better option for people who prioritize their privacy over other things.
Google’s Defense:
The company claimed that none of their arrangements with other companies were by any means illegal. They further argued that they are not using any procedures which are unfair to their rivals or could make them the sole entity in the search engine market. They claimed that other search engines were equally accessible and people could use them if they want to but they don’t, simply because Google provides them with better services.
Recent Developments:
According to recent reports, Samsung, a major user of Google was considering switching to Bing. This caused widespread tremors across technology enthusiasts around the world and also negatively impacted the shares of Google’s parent company. Google had also tried to get the case to be thrown away but their attempts were in vain. It is a given that the company will have a difficult time facing these legal charges and the reports about Samsung if confirmed could prove to be detrimental to the Google economy.