The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit, which a group of states joined, was the fifth by U.S. officials against the company since 2020.
The lawsuit asked the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to force Google to sell much of its suite of ad technology products, which include software to buy and sell ads, a marketplace to complete transactions and a service to display ads worldwide. The lawsuit also asked the court to prevent the company from engaging in allegedly anti-competitive practices.
It is the fifth antitrust lawsuit brought by US officials against Google since 2020 As lawmakers and regulators around the world try to rein in the power big tech companies wield over online information and commerce. In Europe, Amazon, Google, Apple and others have faced investigations and antitrust charges, while regulators have passed new laws to limit the harms of social media and some practices such as data collection.
In the United States, in 2020, a group of states led by Texas filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google related to ad technology, while the Department of Justice and another group of states separately sued Google over claims that abused its dominance over online search. In 2021, some states also sued over the company's app store practices.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said, "We will aggressively protect consumers, safeguard competition, and work to ensure economic equity and opportunity for all."
The Biden administration is trying to use unusual legal theories to clip the wings of some of America's biggest corporations. The F.T.C. recently asked a judge to block Meta from buying a virtual reality company, a rare case that argues that a deal could hurt potential competition in a nascent market. The agency has also questioned Microsoft's purchase of video game publisher Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, a notable move because the two companies aren't primarily seen as direct competitors.
Source: The Ney York Times
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