Google Vs US In An Era When Users Can Download Apps Instantly, Unlike The Dial-Up Age Of 1990

Earlier this month, we saw the biggest ever antitrust report released by the Subcommittee On Antitrust, Commercial And Administrative Law Of The Committee Of The Judiciary of the US Congress. In the complaint, the Department of Justice refers to how Google maintained its search and search advertising monopolies by entering into exclusivity agreements that forbid preinstallation of any competing search service, entering into tying and other arrangements that force preinstallation of its search applications in prime locations on mobile devices and make them undeletable, regardless of consumer preference, entering into long-term agreements with Apple that require Google to be the default – and de facto exclusive – general search engine on Apple’s popular Safari browser and other Apple search tools as well as generally using monopoly profits to buy preferential treatment for its search engine on devices, web browsers, and other search access points, creating a continuous and self-reinforcing cycle of monopolization. Google pays Apple around a reported $12 billion every year to make Google Search the default across all iOS devices but has argued all along that the search business is indeed very competitive, and it has competition from rival search engines including Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo!, to name a few. They also point out that Google search or any other Google product aren’t preloaded on Microsoft Windows 10 devices because Microsoft preloads the Edge web browser with their own Bing search engine as default. “Documents show that Google executives knew that conditioning access to Android and to Google’s suite of apps on the prominent placement of Google Search would disrupt existing partnerships between mobile network operators and rival search engines,” notes the committee.