Following a ruling by Judge Amit P. Mehta in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Google’s browser and Android agreements constituted unlawful monopolization under Sherman Act §2, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, released a statement from Joseph V. Coniglio, director of ITIF’s Schumpeter Project on Competition Policy.
"While the Department of Justice will flaunt today’s decision against Google as a win for the rule of law and innovation, it is actually a dangerous precedent based on faulty antitrust reasoning that will cast a long shadow over the American technology industry," Coniglio stated.
"In claiming that new capabilities like artificial intelligence do not yet pose a competitive constraint on Google, Judge Mehta has taken an astoundingly static view of the search space. There are numerous ways in which companies like OpenAI are already patently expanding the options consumers have for accessing information," he added.
Coniglio further criticized the notion that Google’s default agreements are exclusive and harm consumers. "This, buttressed by a seemingly uncritical acceptance of the DOJ's theories of behavioral economics, ignores the common-sense reality of how easy it is for consumers to change their default settings and access other search engines."
He also expressed concern over Judge Mehta's findings regarding Google's procompetitive justifications. "Perhaps most concerning, Judge Mehta inexplicably found that none of Google’s many procompetitive justifications were supported. That was not only clearly erroneous but a testament to the extreme posture of the decision, even relative to cases like U.S. v. Microsoft, which acknowledged the existence of some procompetitive benefits."
According to Coniglio, Google will likely appeal today’s decision to the D.C. Circuit. He noted that despite today's ruling, there is no indication that a breakup of Google—a goal pursued by some within the radical neo-Brandeisian movement—will be achieved through continued DOJ actions against one of the world’s leading technology companies.
Contact: Sydney Mack, [email protected]
