Court document reveals Google’s strategy to dodge Department of Justice

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Court document reveals

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’s strategy to dodge Department of Justice

The ******* States District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled against

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in the anti-trust lawsuit filed by the 

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.

The court concluded that 

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by maintaining its monopoly in general search services and general text advertising through the use of exclusive distribution agreements. 

According to the 286-page Memorandum Opinion court ruling,

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,

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recognised the risk it would face if Apple Safari browser users were to use an alternative search engine and had calculated that it would cost Apple billions of dollars to develop and operate a global web search engine.

The court paper shows that in 2022,

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’s revenue share payment to Apple was an estimated $20bn, which is nearly double the payment made in 2020, equivalent to 17.5% of Apple’s 2020 operating profit. It also reveals that

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recognised that its search revenue would be severely impacted if Apple were to develop and deploy its own search engine as the default in Safari.

Although the court chose not to sanction

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for its ******** to preserve chat evidence, the court document shows that, for years, the search engine giant had directed its employees to avoid using certain antitrust buzzwords in their communications.

Citing a March 2011

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presentation titled “Antitrust Basics for Search Team”, the court documents show that

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directed employees to “[a]void references to ‘markets’ or ‘market share’ or ‘dominance’”, “[a]void discussions of ‘scale’ and ‘network effects’” and “[a]void metaphors involving wars or sports, winning or losing”. The Memorandum Opinion document also shows that

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urged employees to “[a]ssume every document you generate … will be seen by regulators”.

The court document presented examples of how

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trained its employees to add its in-house lawyers on any written communication regarding revenue sharing and the MADA device-by-device licence that allows mobile device manufacturers to use

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’s proprietary mobile applications developed for the Android ecosystem. It also instructed that, when “dealing with a sensitive issue” via email, to “ensure the email communication is privileged”, which means employees could add a lawyer as an additional recipient on any email correspondence to claim the communications were legal advice. This meant that, initially,

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’s lawyers withheld tens of thousands of records on the grounds of privilege.

The plaintiffs contended that the creation of faux privileged materials “demonstrates that

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intended to harm competition through its contracting practices and its supposed procompetitive justifications were simply pretext”.

In his conclusion, judge Amit P Mehta said: “Any company that puts the onus on its employees to identify and preserve relevant evidence does so at its own peril.

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avoided sanctions in this case. It may not be so lucky in the next one.”

No company – no matter how large or influential – is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws

Merrick Kanter, US attorney general

Attorney general Merrick Kanter called the victory against

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“an historic win for the ********* people”, adding: “No company – no matter how large or influential – is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”

Assistant attorney general Jonathan Garland said the landmark decision held

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accountable. “It paves the path for innovation for generations to come and protects access to information for all Americans,” he said. “This victory is a reflection on the tireless efforts of the dedicated public servants at the Antitrust Division and our state law enforcement partners whose work made today’s decision possible.”

While Alphabet, the parent company of

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, may have lost this case, it is likely to appeal, and any fines or changes to its business practices may take year to be enforced, as Emile El Nems, vice-president for Moody’s Ratings notes. “While today’s ruling will likely be appealed and may take years to materialise, we believe that Alphabet’s scale, continued strong ********** and financial strength mitigate this legal risk and the possible ensuing financial and business model ramifications,” he said.

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also faces continued scrutiny over its business practices from anticompetitive regulators in other regions.

In 2017, the ********* Commission fined

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€2.42bn for abusing its dominance as a search engine by giving ******** advantages to its own comparison shopping service. At the time, commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: “

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’s strategy for its comparison shopping service wasn’t just about attracting customers by making its product better than those of its rivals. Instead,

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abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results and demoting those of competitors. In 2018, it was fined €4.34bn for imposing ******** restrictions on Android device manufacturers and mobile network operators to cement its dominant position in general internet search.”

In 2023, the ********* Commission also informed

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of its preliminary view that the company breached ********* Union antitrust rules by distorting competition in the advertising technology industry (adtech). 

In the ***, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been looking at the planned roll-out of

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’s Privacy Sandbox, which would be detrimental to organisations that use third-party cookies in Chrome for tracking web usage. Following a consultation process,

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has revised its plans and will continue to support third-party cookies.

“Throughout this process, we’ve received feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including regulators like the ***’s CMA and Information Commissioner’s Office, publishers, web developers and standards groups, civil society, and participants in the advertising industry,” said Anthony Chavez,

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vice-president of Privacy Sandbox.

“This feedback has helped us craft solutions that aim to support a competitive and thriving marketplace that works for publishers and advertisers, and encourage the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies.”

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#Court #document #reveals #Googles #strategy #dodge #Department #Justice

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