Google Tries to Protect Its Monopoly Under Cover of Darkness

[Celerity]

The search giant objects to a live audio feed of its historic monopolization trial, which begins next week.

https://prospect.org/justice/2023-09-07-google-protect-monopoly-cover-of-darkness/



This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Google search engine. It’s also the 25th anniversary of the last major monopoly trial in America, U.S. v. Microsoft, where the government successfully argued in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia that Microsoft illegally bundled its internet browser on its Windows software, giving it a competitive advantage on most personal computers. The Justice Department ordered a breakup, but the case was appealed, and after a changeover in power in Washington, the Bush administration reached a settlement that instituted only minor changes to Microsoft’s business practices.

In that case, the trial itself was the remedy, as many antitrust scholars have since noted. Microsoft was publicly depicted as both ruthless about aggrandizing its power, and evasive about the means by which it did so—Bill Gates’s combative depositions, in which he argued over the definitions of basic words, were exposed to public ridicule and laughter at trial. This adverse publicity actually ensured that new companies, like Google, could rise up, according to Gary Reback, the attorney in the original Microsoft case.

“The only way you could get to Google at the time was to go through the Microsoft browser and type google-dot-com … [Microsoft] could have put up the big screen that said ‘access denied,’” Reback told Yahoo! Finance in 2019. “A strong part of the reason [Microsoft didn’t act] was because they were already under scrutiny. They had gone through this terrible trial, they had all these problems. Did they really need other problems?”

This history is now repeating itself in a landmark case starting next week, in the same D.C. District Court. It’s Google, this time, that stands accused of doing essentially what Microsoft did: paying outside companies to make the Google search engine the preset on iPhones, Android phones, and other devices, thereby preventing competition in the search space. In fact, Judge Amit Mehta cited the Microsoft case in his ruling allowing the lawsuit to go forward.

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[Recycle_Guru]

1. Things you didn't think you'd hear back in 2000

When Microsoft was crushing Netscape and Google was still a private company in its infancy. Oh--and Amazon had never made a profit & Apple was still making it's comeback due the The Restoration under Steve Jobs.

Meanwhile, Facebook and Twitter didn't exist and Netflix was still primarily a DVD rental by mail company.