The Justice Department Wants To Chop Google Down To Size

I can't prove that the DOJ recruited from former Ask Jeeves employees, but it would explain the passion. I miss that site.

Google LogoGoogle, like George Clooney, is a household name. Unlike George Clooney, Google is currently fighting antitrust charges. Antitrust is one of those bodies of law that has dips and peaks. We are currently in a phase of renewed interest and emboldened by the President’s support, big names are being taken to task with more frequency. While most average Joes don’t give much thought to this component of the conglomerate, Google’s advertising suite has caught the ire of the Department of Justice. From Reuters:

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, one of the judges who stayed then-President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration into the United States, has been named to oversee the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google over its alleged abuse of dominance in online advertising technology.

The government on Tuesday argued that Google should be forced to sell its ad manager suite, tackling a business that generated about 12 percent of Google’s revenues in 2021 but also plays a vital role in the search engine and cloud company’s overall sales.

In today’s marketplace, algorithmic placements are king. Trust me, anyone who’s ever done so knows how desperate you have to be to move past page three of most Google searches. Being on the first page sells — it isn’t too unreasonable that Google would want a piece of those front-page profits. They better have some consumer-minded defenses ready. I look forward to reading about this case as it develops — it will likely have implications that spill over to other data behemoths like Amazon. In the meantime, I’m gonna do my best to switch over to DuckDuckGo for my search needs. Wouldn’t want to cloud the writing with personal bias, you know.

Judge Leonie Brinkema named to oversee U.S. lawsuit against Google [Reuters]


Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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