A lot of experts feel that it's against consumer interest when companies like Google and Apple get as big as they do. They corner the market, push out competitors, and exercise far too much leverage.
Now, it looks like the US justice system is taking Google to task for doing just that.
The attorneys general of 50 US states and territories have signed into effect an antitrust investigation into the Internet giant, for allegedly abusing their market dominance to further their own gains.
Images courtesy: Reuters
The investigation is being led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton from Texas, and will largely focus on Google's advertising and search businesses. However, in remarks earlier today, Paxton confided that the probe may also be expanded in scope later. So far, it seems like California and Alabama are the only two states not participating in the investigation.
"Google dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet," Paxton said in a press conference in front of the Supreme Court today.?
Meanwhile, anti-corporate monopoly groups like the Open Markets Institute are applauding the move, saying it could go a long way towards breaking the stranglehold these megacorps have on their economy niches. "We haven't seen a major monopolization case against a tech giant since Microsoft was sued in 1998. Today's announcement marks the start of a new era," the group said in a statement.
Aside from probe, the US Federal Trade Commission is also investigating concerns regarding major tech companies stifling competitors The FTC began investigating Facebook in June, and there might be more once that is concluded.
An antitrust litigation move like this was a long time coming. Major tech companies have enjoyed a lot of freedom in the past few years. In that time they've used price bleeding tactics to push out competitors (like Amazon has), exerted far too much influence in both industry policies and investments, and have played willy nilly with people's data and privacy (hello Facebook).
Many experts are of the argument that when Big Tech gets too big, it needs to be broken up into smaller pieces. However we still don't know if that's the best solution. Hopefully the US Attorneys General can figure it out before they reach a verdict.