WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) made its most aggressive move yet in its case against Google last night, telling a court to force a break-up of Google. If approved, this would not only bludgeon Google and its shareholders, who include millions of Americans and their retirement accounts, but would also impose wide-ranging harm on American consumers, businesses and the broader economy.
“If any additional proof was needed as to how much consumers have taken a back seat under the Biden administration’s progressive approach to antitrust, look no further than the outrageous measures sought by the DOJ. Almost none of the DOJ’s extensive demands have anything to do with search default deals at the heart of this case,” said Patrick Hedger, NetChoice Director of Policy. “The proposed remedies create staggering, perverse incentives and other restrictions that will harm innovation in the evolving search marketplace, AI and broader tech sector. If the government prevails, consumers will bear the brunt of Google’s pain.”
In addition to the leaked news earlier this week that the DOJ would force Google to break off their Chrome browser, this filing also seeks to force Google to sell Android in the future if competition in the search marketplace does not improve to the government’s liking. Yet even the judge in this case acknowledged that Google became the market leader in search, not through anticompetitive conduct, but by relentlessly innovating and improving. Therefore, Google would effectively be forced to degrade their own search service to preserve ownership of one of its most-valuable assets.
Moreover, this case was based on defaulting to Google search in Apple’s Safari browser on new iPhones—it had nothing to do with the Google Chrome browser that is widely used on phones and computers.
Under the same list of demands, Google would also be prohibited from creating or acquiring new AI-related search products, further chilling competition in the burgeoning marketplace that is quickly supplanting traditional, general search. Consumers and competition would also suffer from the DOJ’s request of extensive forced data sharing with Google’s rivals. Consumers who, as the ruling again acknowledged have overwhelmingly chosen Google themselves, would see their data handed over to any and all rivals who demand it. Those rival companies may find themselves better off, but their incentive to innovate and produce better products would be greatly diminished because they will be able to free-ride on the DOJ’s terms.
As President-elect Donald Trump said in October, “We want to have great companies — we don’t want China to have these companies. Right now, China is afraid of Google.”
Renowned economist Stephen Moore also wrote in a new report that these proposals, “kneecap Google in ways that would hamstring the company, harm American consumers, and undermine the competitive foundations of the U.S. economy.”
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