10/20/2020 9:46 AM
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 10/20/2020 9:46 AM
The United States Department of Justice is going to accuse Google of "
maintaining an illegal monopoly on search and advertising,
" according to the New York Times published on Tuesday.
It is, explains the North American media, the "most important legal challenge of the Government to the market power of a technology company."
"The lawsuit would reflect the rejection of the power of the largest corporations in the country, and especially the technological giants such as Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple," they write in the New York Times.
All four companies are accused of monopolistic practices, for various reasons.
The Google case is one that unites political arches of all kinds: conservatives like President Trump and liberals like Senator Elizabeth Warren were highly critical of the concentration of power in a handful of tech giants.
“Attorney General William P. Barr, who was appointed by Trump, has played an unusually active role in the investigation.
He pressured the lawyers of the Department of Justice to present the case at the end of September, which caused the rejection of the lawyers who wanted more time and complained of political influence, ”analyzes the US media.
William Barr, United States Attorney General.
Reuters photo
As for the time that the lawsuit could take, the State Department speaks of "years", especially since there are 50 states involved in the investigations.
For now, the company based in Mountain View (Silicon Valley, California) did not respond to the move that the State Department will make.
However, it has denied that it commits monopolistic violations in the market.
Alphabet
, the multinational headquartered by Google, is valued at about
$ 1.04 trillion
with cash reserves of $ 120 billion.
The department also investigated Google's reach in ad technology and
how the company sets prices and places ads on the Internet
.
Suing Google would fulfill a push from Attorney General William P. Barr to crack down on a tech giant in late September, an effort that has taken on greater urgency ahead of the Nov.3 election as President Trump fights. for a second term.
Google's position in the market
Google, at the center of the accusations of the US State Department AFP Photo
controls about 90 percent of web searches globally
, and its rivals have complained on more than one occasion that the company extended that power by making
its search and navigation tools the default
on many smartphones.
Google also
capitalizes about a third of every dollar spent on online advertising
, and its advertising tools are used to serve and auction ads that appear on the Internet.
The contracts that Google with other technology companies are usually agreed to to serve as the default search engine.
And this attracted international attention, with questions about this practice.
The search engine ends up being the strongest point of discussion.
There is a precedent: the Competition and Markets Authority of Great Britain, for example, said in a report that the fact that Google is by
default
the search engine on almost all phones is "surprising and demonstrates the value that Google places on these. default positions ".