Reuters: Google denies destroying ‘chat’ evidence in U.S. antitrust lawsuit . “Alphabet Inc’s Google has denied intentionally destroying evidence in the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit over the company’s search business, in a response to the government’s bid for sanctions in federal court.”
CNBC: Google stacks its legal team with former DOJ employees as it faces antitrust cases. “Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has stacked its legal team with former Department of Justice employees as it fights two separate antitrust lawsuits from the agency, public profiles show.”
The Register: Shareholders sue Google, claim it hid anticompetitive ad practices. “Google parent Alphabet is facing a proposed class action lawsuit from investors unhappy that the company’s alleged advertising monopoly, and the subsequent DoJ investigation into this, led to ‘significant losses and damages.'”
Economic Times (India Times): Google’s ‘castle and moat’ strategy is data hegemony: CCI tells NCLAT. “Fair trade regulator CCI on Thursday alleged that Google has created a digital data hegemony and called for a market space with ‘free, fair and open competition'”.
TechCrunch: UK closes ‘Jedi Blue’ antitrust collusion case against Google and Meta. “The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) won’t be pursuing an anticompetition collusion case against Google and Facebook’s parent Meta, following a similar decision made by its counterparts in the Europe Union. However, Google will remain under the CMA’s spotlight, with parts of the Google-Meta case now being bundled with a separate ongoing antitrust against Google.”
Associated Press: Judge allows Google antitrust case to move ahead in Virginia. “A judge has rejected a request from Google to transfer a federal antitrust lawsuit against it from Virginia to New York. The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, is a victory for the Justice Department and several states, including Virginia, that sued Google earlier this year and wanted to keep the case in the commonwealth.”
Reuters: Turkish competition board says fines Elon Musk over Twitter takeover. “The Turkish Competition Board said on Monday it had decided to fine billionaire Elon Musk 0.1% of Twitter’s gross income in Turkey in 2022, as his takeover of the company occurred without the board’s permission.”
CNBC: DOJ reportedly probes Google Maps, adding to sprawling antitrust concerns. “The Department of Justice has renewed its focus on Google Maps, adding to its already-sprawling antitrust investigation into the company, Politico and Bloomberg reported Wednesday.”
Reuters: U.S. Justice Dept accuses Google of evidence destruction in antitrust case. “U.S. Justice Department lawyers say that Alphabet Inc’s Google destroyed internal corporate communications and have asked a federal judge to sanction the company as part of the government’s antitrust case over its search business.”
The Register: What Brit watchdog redacted: Google gives Apple cut of Chrome iOS search revenue. “Google has been paying Apple a portion of search revenue generated by people using Google Chrome on iOS, according to a source familiar with the matter. This is one of the aspects of the relationship between the two tech goliaths that currently concerns the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).”
The Register: Japan joins ranks of nations plotting smackdown for Apple, Google. “Japan’s competition regulator has recommended big changes to local laws to reform the ‘oligopoly’ it’s assessed Google and Apple enjoy in the markets for mobile operating systems and the apps that run on them.”
Washington Post: Opinion: Why this Google antitrust lawsuit has promise. “Yet unlike another DOJ case brought under the previous administration, the latest lawsuit doesn’t focus on the power the company holds over what we look for on the internet. Instead, it focuses on what we don’t go looking for and see anyway: advertisements. The argument is relatively straightforward: Google dominates this market by playing a key role in the technology at every point along the ‘ad stack.'”
Times Now (India): ‘Sorry, it can’t be done’, Supreme Court responds to Google’s plea. “The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea by Google seeking modification of the court’s January 19 order, and asked the tech giant to raise its objections before the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).”
Wall Street Journal: Breakup of Google’s Ad Business Would Reshape $500 Billion Sector. “Google spent the better part of two decades building the world’s most powerful digital advertising machine. Breaking it up would send shock waves through the $500 billion online-ad market.”
Slate: It’s the Perfect Time to Break Up Google’s Ad-Tech Monopoly. “It may seem contradictory, but an economic downturn is actually the perfect time to enforce antitrust laws in the ad-tech industry. First of all, Google is fine. It generated $54.5 billion in ad revenue from July through September 2022 alone, an increase of 2.5 percent from the same quarter in 2021…. The real casualties of any pending financial crisis will be the much smaller players that also depend on digital advertisements—newspapers, magazines, and local businesses—and that directly suffer from Google’s dominant position in the market.”
