DoJ hits Google with antitrust lawsuit

The government alleges that Google is spending billions of dollars to ensure that its search engine is the default choice on different browsers and phones

The USA's Department of Justice (DoJ) filed a long-expected antitrust lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, alleging that the company uses anticompetitive search and advertising practices that violate federal antitrust laws.

The DoJ said in, in a case filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C, that Google is hurting consumers by making it difficult for other search engines to gain a foothold in the market.

In the filing, the DoJ asked the court to consider a 'structural relief', under which Google could be asked to sell a portion of its business and stop all practices that regulators find to be unlawful.

"Absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anticompetitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling innovation," the DoJ stated in its complaint, according to the Washington Post.

"For the sake of American consumers, advertisers, and all companies now reliant on the internet economy, the time has come to stop Google's anticompetitive conduct and restore competition," it added.

According to the Justice Department, Google's practices help it to preserve a monopoly for its search engine and related ad business.

Nearly 80 per cent of all web searches in the US go through Google, and the figures are even higher on smartphones, according to DoJ. That's because Google has spent billions of dollars over the years to ensure that its search engine is the default choice on different browsers and phones, like Apple iPhones.

Brokerage firm Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates that Google pays Apple about $8 billion a year to be the default search engine on the Safari mobile web browser.

The lawsuit also alleges that Google has been using cash reserves from parent company Alphabet to pay those massive fees, which is not possible for smaller firms.

Responding to the allegations, Google said that the lawsuit was 'deeply flawed' and that it would not help consumers.

"People use Google because they choose to, not because they're forced to, or because they can't find alternatives," Kent Walker, Google's SVP of Global Affairs, said in a blog post.

"This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use."

Walker added that the lawsuit, if successful, would result in higher prices for users, as Google would be compelled to increase the cost of its mobile hardware and software.

The DoJ's lawsuit against Google has come after the US House Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee said in a report earlier this month that big technology companies like Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon are effectively monopolies that need to be broken up to restore competition and improve innovation in the industry.

The report argued that these companies had been abusing their tremendous powers to control access to markets and pick winners and losers.

Last month, EU commissioner Thierry Breton also told the Financial Times that the bloc was seeking to give itself sweeping powers to control big firms. Such powers, according to Breton, would include breaking up tech firms or asking them to sell some of their operations in the region.