Pearls and Irritations

Search behemoth Google is under pressure in the US after three anti-trust trials concluded, with one of the remedies proposed being a call for it to be forced to sell off its web browser, Chrome, an app that dominates the browser space.

There has also been a call for a break-up of Google’s advertising business.

The three trials have been concluded in the relatively quick time of 14 months, with the company being harshly criticised for its alleged monopolistic behaviour and its efforts to conceal evidence. One trial was due to a complaint brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games, with the other two being because of complaints by the US Department of Justice.

Monday (November 25) saw the final hearing in the trials with Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia now having to render a verdict.

When the DoJ’s case over search dominance began, it was alleged that Google had withheld tens of thousands of documents from evidence, claiming they contained “privileged” information. But when the court had a look at them, it came to exactly the opposite conclusion.

The outcome of the trials will be greatly influenced by the fact that Donald Trump is set to take power in January. Google staffers were known to have been enthusiastic backers of his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. Given that, Trump was not inclined to be charitable to the company during his first four years in the White House.

Google, which had been known to have open access to the White House during the eight years when Barack Obama was president, was exposed when an internal video was leaked by the right-wing website Breitbart in 2018, showing that the top leaders at Google had been terribly distressed over Trump’s win in 2016.

The 64-minute video provided glimpses into the thought processes of a company whose decisions affect billions of web users.

Trump’s animosity towards Google was evident when the company applied for an exception to sell its Android operating system to Huawei, a Chinese technology giant that was under US sanctions. Google never heard back after it applied.

In sharp contrast, Microsoft was given an exception to sell its Windows operating system to Huawei for use on its laptops. Readers will recall that Trump launched a trade war against China soon after he became president, hiking tariffs on imports from the Asian giant.

What tactics Google will adopt to try and manoeuvre outcomes in the three trials to suit its interests are unknown. The company took the unusual step of paying damages to the US Government to try and avoid a jury trial in the anti-trust lawsuit over its digital advertising business.

In the past, Google has been known to try and kick the ball down the road, delaying outcomes until it could obtain one in its favour.

As Ken Glueck, executive vice-president of Oracle, a company that was involved in a decade-long case against Google over the alleged theft of some 11,000 lines of code from Java, put it, Google’s method was to “deny every claim, appeal any adverse decision, [and] run out the clock on every opponent – including government regulators”.

“Even nominal ‘losses’ for Google are really wins: it can appeal fines and courtroom setbacks for years while its market power continues to grow and competitors disappear. And even if it has to pay something in the end, it will be a drop in Google’s very large bucket. It’s ‘efficient infringement’ at global scale,” was his take on it.

Google earned a favourable verdict in that case, with a judge finally ruling that the use of those thousands of lines of code were fair use of the material. That case took more than a decade to resolve, with the pandemic contributing to the delay.

Trump’s term will end in 2028. One would not be surprised if Google manages to drag things out beyond that in a bid to get an outcome that suits it.

Share and Enjoy !

SHARE TWEET SHARE COPY EMAIL PRINT