Keneci Network (@keneci)

DOJ, 11 States Hit Google With Antitrust Lawsuit The Justice Department Tuesday filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against the left-wing tech giant over its ruthless anti-competitive business practices. Eleven states joined the DOJ in the suit against the Alphabet Inc's company. The 64-page lawsuit aims “to restrain Google LLC from unlawfully maintaining monopolies in the markets for general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising in the United States through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices, and to remedy the effects of this conduct.” The lawsuit contends: “Two decades ago, Google became the darling of Silicon Valley as a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet. That Google is long gone. The Google of today is a monopoly gatekeeper for the internet, and one of the wealthiest companies on the planet, with a market value of $1 trillion and annual revenue exceeding $160 billion." The tech sector has been a particular challenge for antitrust enforcers and the courts because the industry evolves so rapidly. Many businesses and media companies have complained to antitrust authorities at home and abroad about both Google’s search practices and its dominance in digital advertising. The challenge marks a new chapter in the history of Google, a company formed in a garage in a San Francisco suburb in 1998—the same year Microsoft Corp. was hit with a blockbuster government antitrust case accusing the software giant of unlawful monopolization. That case, which eventually resulted in a settlement, was the last similar government antitrust case against a major U.S. tech firm. European Union regulators have targeted the company with three antitrust complaints and fined it about $9 billion. https://www.keneci.com/feedbox#h.dvc60zef77of