DOJ files antitrust suit against Google
Yahoo Finance’s Dan Howley joins Zack Guzman to discuss what the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against Google means for the tech company.
Video Transcript
ZACK GUZMAN: But right now, we want to highlight the action we're seeing play out in Google parent, Alphabet, shares. They're in the green despite the update we got as the Department of Justice filed its antitrust lawsuit against Google today, along with 11 Republican state attorneys general. It's the culmination of more than a year-long investigation into alleged anti-competitive practices to maintain what the DOJ claims is a monopoly on search achieved through exclusionary practices. And I want to bring on Yahoo Finance's tech reporter, Dan Howley, who has more details on the case. Dan?
DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, Zack, that's right. This is the, as you said, culmination of a more than year-long suit that has been going on-- or an investigation that has been going on into Google parent, Alphabet, and its business practices. Now in a press release, the DOJ lays out exactly how they believe Google has been operating as monopoly.
And I just have a few lines here. They said that they entered into tying and other arrangements that forced the pre-installation of Google's search applications in prime locations on mobile devices and then made them undeletable regardless of consumer preference. They also entered into long-term agreements with Apple that would require Google to be the default and defacto exclusive general search engine on Apple's popular Safari browser and other Apple tools. And they go on to say that they used-- Google that is-- money from the monopoly profits to then kind of continue the cycle of eating into other companies and trying to get them to use Google services.
Basically this looks like it's going to be quite a long journey for Google and for the Department of Justice. Google has already said that they feel that this suit is flawed-- naturally they would. It's not like they're going to come out and say they agree with the DOJ suing them.
But it's not just the DOJ and these 11 state attorneys general. We have some attorneys general, led by New York AG Letitia James, saying that they are still wrapping up their own investigation into Google. That should be done in a few weeks, and then if they want to proceed with some kind of suit, they would then work with the DOJ and collaborate to kind of put that case together alongside the DOJ or with the DOJ. So it would be a single suit then going forward. A lot to unpack here, but this seems like it's the first domino to fall for these big tech giants. And we don't know if this is going to be the end of big tech in general.
ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah, If we look at the share reaction, a lot of this may have been priced in, considering how long we've been seeing this talked about in Congress. You think about the process-- it took last time with Microsoft about a five-year process to go through antitrust lawsuit there. So it could be the beginning, but, Dan Howley, I appreciate you bringing us that. We'll see what happens on that front.
