this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2023

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Google accused of rigging market to secure dominant search monopoly in biggest US antitrust trial for years (news.sky.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Google accused of rigging market to secure dominant search monopoly in biggest US antitrust trial for years::The historic legal battle against federal government lawyers - which comes just a week after Google's 25th birthday - is set to be the biggest in almost two decades. The outcome of the case could have repercussions for the rest of the tech industry.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It is alleged Google protects its franchise by shelling out billions of dollars annually to be the default search engine on the iPhone and on web browsers such as Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox.

This has never been a secret, for years (decades) browsers like firefox, back when it was the dominant browser, would have its default search engine choice given to the highest bidder. At times, it was yahoo, or bing, before google outbid them in the following release of the browser. Obviously the same happens for safari, to noone's surprise.

So, the real question is: why does this come up only now as potentially illegal?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Because Google is like 90% of the market.

It’s not the bidding part per se the issue, the issue is that the bidding (and possibly other effective strategies) are so successful that Google is almost a monopoly.

The illegal part is that google is a bit too successful AND it uses these not-merits based techniques 🙂

The idea is that if you really want to become almost a monopoly you should not play these games. And being a total monopoly would be illegal in any case

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair Google practically modernized the search engine. I sometimes miss the before before times instead of by SEO ranks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

sometimes?? God I miss it all the time

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure, but why now? If it was a problem, why didn't they do something about it 15 years ago or so?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because for the last 15 years or so the agencies responsible for figuring it out and enforcement were toothless, corrupt, incompetent or all three together.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Well tjen, I think question remains, why now?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

every now and then, even on this community, I see praises towards the new leader of FCC (IIRC) who's taking a hard stance agains big tech and elsewhere (Doctorow's blog IIRC again) about the wider "bidenomics" of going out against monopolies and trusts by empowering existing laws and agencies. Guess the answer is "because now there is an administration in power who at least pretends to care".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox gets the majority of it's funding from this though, depending on how the rule on this they could make Firefox lag behind without funding and make chromium even more of a monopoly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Absolutely this. I rely on Firefox and this, in a weird twist of fate, could actually hurt Firefox and consolidate Google's (Chrome) monopoly

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:

A landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google begins today, with the California-based company accused of using illegal means to keep its monopoly power.

The historic legal battle against federal government lawyers - which comes just a week after Google's 25th birthday - is set to be the biggest in almost two decades, the outcome of which could have repercussions for the rest of the tech industry.

It is alleged Google protects its franchise by shelling out billions of dollars annually to be the default search engine on the iPhone and on web browsers such as Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox.

It argues its rivals range from search engines such as Microsoft's Bing to websites like Amazon and Yelp, where consumers can post questions about what to buy or where to go.

Read more science and tech news:'He was a titan': Dolly the sheep clone scientist diesDistant exoplanet 'could have water ocean and signs of life'

Top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc, as well as those from other powerful technology companies, are expected to give evidence during the court case.

The original article contains 374 words, the summary contains 182 words. Saved 51%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No matter the fine, they’ll pay it and move on.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

It can be more than a fine.

They could be forced to sell parts of Google, to stop paying browsers, or whatever the court decides. However if the court decides in favor of the antitrust, then it will also put in place a precedent which will impact the other companies too.