Google defends search engine dominance in US antitrust case
ITIF, a research group Google has funded, says if the lawsuit succeeds it ‘would roll back nearly two decades of search innovation, leaving consumers worse off’
San Francisco — On Thursday, after a barrage of antitrust lawsuits, Google mounted a defence of its most valuable business. The response showed it’s not a Ma Bell break-up Google fears, but being forced to alter its crown jewel — the search engine.
The latest US monopoly case against the company came from 38 state attorneys-general, led by Colorado, piling on to a separate state case, filed the day before, and one from the justice department. Colorado’s suit accuses Alphabet’s Google of abusing its “virtually untrammeled power over internet search traffic”. It’s a familiar complaint from rivals in adjacent businesses, such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, which have long maintained that Google favours its own stuff in search results and advertising...
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