Google Slapped With Lawsuit over Alleged Anti-Competitive Practices

Google have been under investigation for several months by the U.S. Department of Justice. A lawsuit has now been launched which accuses Google of anti-competitive behaviour, a claim the search engine has been fighting against in Europe.

The trillion dollar company has been labelled “a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet.” The Justice Department claims that Google lock up deals with various mobile carriers and service providers to make its search engine the default option across multiple devices. It’s led to believe that this is the reasoning behind their dominant 80-percent market share. “For many years, Google has used anticompetitive tactics to maintain and extend its monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising and general search text advertising — the cornerstones of its empire,” says the DOJ.

Google have responded by posting a statement which has called the lawsuit “deeply flawed” and has argued that “People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives.” They went on to say that the current case “would do nothing to help consumers” but would instead “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.”

European regulators have fine Google a total of $9bn for anticompetitive practices

The DOJ are yet to respond or offer any alternatives to the matter.