United States v. Google: Biggest lawsuit in 20 years Israel today

Will it be split into several separate companies?

The US Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the technology giant claiming that it is a monopoly that eliminates competition • Google in response: "People choose to use our services"

• Photo: Reuters

The U.S. Department of Justice last night (Tuesday) filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, according to which the company has taken anti-competitive moves to increase and maintain its dominance in the field of online search and advertising by abusing its power.

This is the most significant move against a technology giant in the last 20 years, when the Clinton administration went to war with Microsoft claiming it dominates the operating systems market.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., claims that Google used its power to eliminate competitors all over the Internet and became the gateway to the network.

The lawsuit also states that the company controls about 80 percent of the U.S. search market. Republican attorney generals from 11 states have joined the lawsuit, the full version of which has not yet been released.

The US Department of Justice's lawsuit also mentions Google's power in the mobile market, as it ostensibly acts monopolistically when it pays large sums of money to cellular giants - such as Apple and Samsung, to make it its default search engine on their devices.

The report also shows that a similar move exists in the browser market for PCs, where the company's search engine is set by default in Google Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari - a total of about 87 percent of the market share. Texas, Ken Paxton, is set to file a lawsuit against Google over monopolistic actions in the digital advertising market, saying the company controls the advertising market and advertisers must go through it to buy advertising space across the web.

Today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed.

People use Google because they choose to - not because they're forced to or because they can not find alternatives.

We will have a full statement this morning.

- Google Public Policy (@googlepubpolicy) October 20, 2020

And what does Google say?

The company posted a tweet on Twitter, stating that "this is a wrong decision. People use Google because they choose to do so, not because they are forced to or because they are unable to find alternatives."

What are the implications of this?

A senior U.S. Department of Justice official also noted that all options are at stake, including splitting the company.