▲Kim Eun-Seong reporter / The KungHyang Shinmun
The trial of the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust litigation against Google began on the 12th (local time). This is the trial for litigation filed by the Trump administration in October 2020. It is the largest-scale antitrust litigation brought by the U.S. government since the 1998 legal battle with Microsoft (MS), which dominated the internet browser market with its Windows operating system. Especially, it's also significant because it's the first litigation since the mobile era took off in earnest.
This trial could impact not only Google but also the entire tech industry for the next decades. The U.S. Department of Justice has shown the will to prevent the danger of big tech companies using their market power to dominate the next generation of technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).
This litigation will address whether Google, which controls 90% of the U.S. search engine market, violated antitrust laws in creating market power. Regarding this, Google says it hasn't disrupted competition because its search engine is so superb that users have chosen it. "The most searched word in the world is Google. This shows that most people actually prefer the Google search engine." said Kent Walker, Google's president of global affairs.
However, it seems that Google has already violated antitrust laws. Smartphones running on the Android operating system are pre-installed of all sorts of Google-related applications. And they can't even uninstall. The Android operating system is installed on 85% of the world's smartphones. This is a serious and unfair behavior that Google has committed by abusing its monopoly status.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Google is spending $10 billion every year to maintain its position as the default search engine. This shows that Google has abused its monopoly power to block competitors.
The information technology (IT) industry notes that this is the largest antitrust litigation against a big tech company since the U.S. government battled Microsoft in court. Back then, the U.S. Justice Department filed litigation against Microsoft of colluding with computer makers to push competitors out of the market. The trial court ruled that the company should be carved out, but on appeal, it was avoided after MS promised prevention of recurrence and Bill Gates stepped down as CEO.
If the court sides with the government in this trial, Google could be forced to dispose of parts of its business, cease problematic business practices, or, in the worst case, break up the company. Google will have to admit that it violated antitrust laws and should be punished for it, also has to have the right attitude about running the company going forward.
Kim Yeeun (2-5)¹ | Staff Reporter
1) xo12gud@naver.com
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