The Department of Justice filed antitrust charges against Google, as we’ve reported earlier. Well, it didn’t take long for Google to respond to such accusations. Google published a new blog post, calling such antitrust charges “deeply flawed”.
The company basically said that consumers are picking Google because they want not. They’re not doing that because Google tells them to, nobody is forcing them to it, they’re doing it by their own free will.
Google’s Chief Legal Officer said that the company is paying to promote its services, just like every other company. He also mentioned that Google negotiates agreements with other companies for “eye-level shelf space”, just like other companies do.
Google believes DOJ antitrust lawsuit is flawed
He also mentioned that Google’s competitors are readily available at every step, if users want to opt for them. He says that Google’s agreements with Apple and other device makers are no different than what many other companies are doing.
The bottom line is, Google believes that these chargers are “deeply flawed”, as the company notes in the title of its blog post. If you’d like to read the whole thing, you can do so by clicking here.
The Attorney General, William Barr, initially said that Google is no longer competing only on the merits, but that it uses its monopoly power and profit to lock up key pathways to search on mobile phones, browsers, and next-generation devices. By doing that, it deprives rivals of distribution and scale.
The thing is, the AG and DOJ believe that Google’s monopoly can’t stand, and that things have to change. The company, obviously, doesn’t see things the same way.
It seems like Google is set to battle DOJ in court. This is a huge case, so don’t expect it to be over soon, not at all. This will probably take quite a bit of time, and you’ll hear much more about it in the future.