Washington – The Department of Justice and Google return to court Monday to argue on what remedies a federal judge should approve in response to his finding last year that Google’s search monopoly violated antitrust law.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found Google’s agreements to pay other companies for prominent placement of its search service are exclusionary and anticompetitive. In earlier proposals, the previous administration’s DOJ had suggested various remedies that could go as far as breaking up a number of Google’s services, going far beyond the scope of Judge Mehta’s ruling.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association has advocated for competition in the tech industry for more than 50 years, having aligned with the DOJ in past cases, including the IBM, AT&T, and Microsoft matters.
The following can be attributed to CCIA President Matt Schruers:
“At a time when U.S. digital services are in fierce competition for global technology leadership, structural remedies that weaken U.S. companies are not wise and risk handing an economic advantage to adversaries abroad.
“The DOJ is expected to advocate for a mixed bag of structural and behavioral remedies that go far beyond Judge Mehta’s ruling. Any remedy should be narrowly tailored to address specific conduct, which in this case was a set of search distribution contracts that were similar to the practices companies use to display products at the end of a grocery aisle.”
