Google antitrust ruling: The big deal about Big Tech's monopoly power
Mint Quick Edit | Google's search monopoly ruling: Error 404? By locking more users into its ecosystem of services such as Gmail, Google Maps and YouTube, the company gains access to more user data, which in turn lets it develop newer services and better artificial intelligence technology. The court noted that Google accounts for 90% of global web searches, which denies other companies the opportunity to grow and compete with it. Google has inflated ad prices above free-market levels, it said, giving it the power to pay billions for default status and maintain its monopoly.
Consumers lose when choice is limited in this way, even when the products in question are free to use. This is why competition-distorting behaviour is frowned upon. The ruling is seen as a landmark in the US Justice Department’s efforts to curb Big Tech’s enormous power and is expected to have repercussions for the government’s lawsuits against other US tech giants.
In its lawsuit against Apple, the US government has alleged that the company’s ‘walled garden’ makes it difficult for customers to ditch the iPhone. It has also sued Amazon for allegedly squeezing small sellers on its marketplace. Also read | Full disclosure for Sebi chief: Key to preventing next Hindenburg-like scandal The remedies in the Google lawsuit will be pronounced separately.
The company will, of course, appeal the ruling. But as the company is changing how it operates in Europe to comply with the EU’s new laws on digital markets, Google may have to do so in the US as well. The political consensus globally is that Big Tech’s power isn’t benign, and that these tech giants have far too much power over how people consume information, search the internet, and buy goods and services
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