Google is facing an anti-trust lawsuit
The US Department of Justice is taking steps against the increasing market power of the internet giant.

The US Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google (NASDAQ: Brille) alleging that the tech giant was using anti-competitive tactics to protect its monopoly on the search engine and related advertising business. This is the government's most significant attempt to challenge Google's market dominance in the internet sector in nearly two decades. According to the lawsuit, the search engine giant used anti-competitive practices to deter competition, such as paying Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to be the primary search engine on its devices.
The company has entered into agreements with several other cell phone manufacturers and wireless carriers to make their search engine the default option. Its search engine has a dominant market share of almost 80%. Google was the first major tech company to have antitrust proceedings pending since the 1990s when the US government fought with Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT). In addition to Google, other technology companies such as Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Apple have also faced an antitrust investigation.
Earlier this month, House Democrats concluded a year-long investigation accusing tech giants of violating antitrust regulations. The Justice Department's lawsuit is a big step that will lead to profound changes in the industry and have ripple effects that will affect other tech companies as well. The lawsuit could spark a cascade of more lawsuits from attorneys general, with four states already investigating.
Any tech company has something to lose with the breakup of Search for Google, the main revenue stream that is expected to impact the power of advertising. On the other hand, a company like Facebook will cancel its apps like Instagram and Whatsapp while Apple will relax control of the App Store. Amazon, on the other hand, risks having its external sellers' marketplace canceled. US Attorney General William Barr has been speaking publicly about the probing for months and had urged the agency to file a lawsuit in late September. However, there was some resistance from agency lawyers who said the lawsuit was politically motivated.





