U.S. Government Sues Google Over Alleged Antitrust Law Violations

Joe: 106.7 WIZN, it’s The Rolling Stones in “Miss You,” heard Aerosmith in “Sweet Emotion” before that, Joe Vega taking you through your Wednesday Rocking Ride Home. And I’m joined now by Ben Barry from Martin Harding & Mazzotti. Hello, Ben.

Ben: Good morning, Joe.

Joe: So I’m calling you today Ben, to get your take on the story that it came out last week about the federal government is suing Google alleging multiple violations of the Federal Antitrust Law. And I was just wondering what you can tell us about that?

Ben: Well, essentially, the government filed against Google saying that Google has waylaid all of the competition when it comes to search engines. In other words, there are these pearly gates that people have to go through to get to the internet and Google, your gates are so big and so wide, that you’re preventing any other competition in the field from actually emerging and potentially providing a more premium product to consumers out there.

So essentially, what they’re saying is, “Google, you have a monopoly around the entryway into searching the internet.”

Joe: Now, I read somewhere that this is similar to a lawsuit that the government had against Microsoft back in the day.

Ben: Well, there’s certainly a comparison between this complaint and a similarly styled complaint that was lodged against Microsoft under the same laws back during the Clinton administration somewhere in that area. And the government was largely successful in demonstrating that Microsoft was doing the same thing, it was preventing competition.

And strangely enough, at that time, the creators of Google were very critical of Microsoft and the techniques that Microsoft was using, and it’s come full circle, and now they’re focusing on Google. In that Microsoft case, to my recollection, Microsoft agreed to act a certain way and I think that may still be an active exemplar for what a possible outcome for Google maybe.

But again, Google is a trillion-dollar company. They have money to pay for lawyers and stretch to sell for as long as they can, it will be very interesting to see what happens.

Joe: I was gonna joke and say wise for the U.S government to go to war with Google, Google will probably win.

Ben: Yeah. I mean, in my mind, anyways, this is sort of a David and Goliath. Google is the Goliath, United States is the David. Google also has worked its way into our lexicon. I mean, it’s an actual verb so I don’t see how this really works out when the rubber meets the road, but we’ll see it’s up to the government they have to prove their case.

Joe: Well, thank you very much, Ben Barry, for Martin, Harding & Mazzotti. Thanks for coming on, Ben.

Ben: Hey, thanks for having me, Joe.

Joe: Remember, you can call Ben at any time at 1800LAW1010 or go online to 1800law1010.com. Mel Allen takes over from here. He’s got music from Pink Floyd & Led Zeppelin and Def Leppard, next.