The government’s antitrust case against Google just got significantly smaller. In a filing on Friday, a US district court judge dismissed several of the claims that the Department of Justice and a coalition of states brought against the company, including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.
After hearing the results of several antitrust cases, the standard of evidence for anti competitive behavior seems impossibly high with current laws and precedents.
In a filing on Friday, a US district court judge dismissed several of the claims that the Department of Justice and a coalition of states brought against the company, including allegations that Google Search harms competing services.
The decision stems from a pair of lawsuits that the DOJ and a group of 38 state attorneys general filed against Google in 2020.
The suit accuses Google of anti-competitive behavior on a number of fronts, including designing its search engine to disadvantage competitors like Yelp, Expedia, and Tripadvisor.
However, Judge Amit Mehta threw out this claim, stating that the government’s proof of anti-competitive harm “relies not on evidence but almost entirely on the opinion and speculation of its expert” that it cited in its suit, law professor Jonathan Baker.
Mehta also dropped the DOJ’s accusations related to the agreements Google makes with developers and Android phone makers because the government abandoned the allegations.
Google filed a motion to dismiss the suit late last year and is facing a separate lawsuit from the DOJ over its grip on the online advertisements market.
I had done the same. Was on DDG for around 2 years but shifted to Brave search recently. Results are almost on par with DDG I'd say but the main highlight for me is their AI summarizer. Pretty accurate and often I don't even have to visit any website. Also like their discussions tab.
Google seems more and more like an up-jumped shopping mall directory. It's great if I'm looking for something to buy, but for finding anything not related to commerce I also have better luck with a different search engine.