Google is a company that both in Spain and in the rest of the world has products that have sometimes come to be considered monopolies. Some of the most demanded cases are its search engine, the Chrome browser and Android itself, even investigated in variants such as Android TV.
We have experienced so many times when Google faces antitrust lawsuits (especially from the EU) that they are no longer surprising. However, let it be the United States Department of Justice itself who sue Google it’s historical.
Google is sued by the United States for monopolistic practices
A landmark lawsuit begins by the United States Department of Justice against Google. Through a telephone press conference, Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Rossen explained that the lawsuit is based on Google’s role as “the main guardian of internet access.”
This reference to being the guardian of the internet is directedto the internet search engine itself, which is the gateway for any user to the internet. 80% of Americans use the Google search engine, and that makes the Google algorithms that choose which results to show in each search have too much power.
The lawsuit also includes how Google paid several million to operators to distribute its search engine on mobile phones exclusively, also highlighting benefit agreements with several browsers to be the default browser. The most prominent case is that of Apple, where figures of several thousand dollars a year are estimated for being the default search engine on the iPhone and Mac.
A measure “that will not help consumers”, according to Google
Faced with the historic demand from the United States, Google has reacted publicly defending its innocence, indicating that in operating systems such as the Mac, the Safari browser shows both Bing and Yahoo! as search engines who have paid to be in the same position as Google.
And in the case of Microsoft with Windows 10, Edge comes pre-installed on the system with the Bing browser by default.
On the other hand, in Android they indicate that “rival applications” often come pre-installed on Android devices, and that it is really easy to change the search engine and add widgets like Google.
According to Google, people choose to use Google without being forced and because they consider it to be a better product than the competition’s. Not that it has anything to do with the fact that most people use pre-installed software.
In the same way that Google affirms that the demand will not help consumers and that it favors less competitive options having a greater presence in the market, the reasoning that Google has offered is a perhaps somewhat vague attempt.
In Europe we experienced a similar situation last year, which ended up having an impact on the possibility of choosing both a browser and a search engine at the time we are activating our new Android mobile.
Google will force you to choose search engine and browser if you live in EuropeGoogle will introduce a noticeable change in the way Android works within Europe: users will have to choose the browser and the search engine.
The entry Historic US lawsuit against Google for being “the main guardian of the internet” appears first in The Free Android.
