Ensuring Antitrust Actually Promotes Competition in the Digital Economy: Evaluating Proposed Remedies in the Google Case

Leading academics evaluate proposed remedies in the Google Search antitrust case, and find that they include de facto regulatory proposals that threaten to disrupt beneficial competitive dynamics. Among the authors' findings: break-ups are rarely used in single-firm cases, and often fail to provide lasting benefits when they are used; requiring Google to share technology with rivals discourages investment in innovation; and banning Google’s search distribution deals would eliminate a revenue stream for partner companies and force them to raise prices for consumers, or lead to market exit.