FTC's Google antitrust case: Investigation rumor roundup

By Richi Jennings (@richi) - June 24, 2011.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is said to be facing an antitrust case, being prepared by the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission investigation is centered on Google's alleged preference for its own services over competitors in search page ranking. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers ask if it's to the detriment of consumers.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: More proof that Google is evil...

Grant Gross gets going:

The probe would focus on whether Google is ... unfairly driving traffic to its growing group of Web properties. ... Representatives of Google and the FTC declined to comment.
...
The European Commission opened its own antitrust investigation ... in November. [It] focused on allegations that Google abused its dominant position ... to promote its other services.  

 
Thomas Catan and Amir Efrati broke the news:

The civil probe ... has the potential to reshape how companies compete on the Internet. ... It wouldn't necessarily lead to any federal allegations of wrongdoing. ... [It] could be as much of a watershed event ... as the Justice Department's ... lawsuit against Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s. ... The long-running case ... distracted the company ... and tarnished its public image—risks that might also face Google.
...
Issues in the FTC probe are expected to include whether Google ... unfairly steers users to the company's own ... services at the expense of rival providers. Some companies ... claim its market power ... determines whether businesses succeed or fail. ... Google doesn't subject its ... sites, such as Google Places ... to the same rules that cover [3rd party] sites ... so Google's own sites often show up atop its search results.  

Anthony James offers a specific example:

Expedia and others ... including Microsoft, Yelp and TripAdvisor, ... complained that Google’s search-advertising business ... starve them of clicks as users click ... prominently-placed links for competing Google services.  

Inside Google, a "nonpartisan," Google-baiting lobby group opines thuswise:

The European Union and the State of Texas are already investigating ... the FTC probe raises the issue to a new level of intensity. ... Millions of dollars spent on lobbying and the hobnobbing by Google ... will not prevent a long needed investigation.
...
Simply being a monopoly is not illegal. ... [But] using the monopoly power to win an unfair competitive advantage [is]. ... [We've] documented ... Google using its dominant position in online search.  

But Mathew Ingram notes this nuanced distinction:

Inconveniencing competitors isn’t the benchmark the courts look at ... the real test is whether consumers are harmed in some way. ... That would be a hard case to make, since Google typically makes things less costly or even free.
...
Such government antitrust investigations rarely accomplish what they set out to do. ... [In the] antitrust investigations into Microsoft, IBM and AT&T ... competition came to those markets not as a result of ... regulation but because of external factors ... that the government could never have predicted.  

 
And Finally...
More proof that Google is evil

 

 
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.