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In 2022 alone, Google paid Apple $20 billion to cement its illegal monopoly
Tuesday, August 6, 2024 9:00 am
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Alphabet subsidiary Google is “a monopolist, and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly” in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on Monday, August 5th.

Jonathan Guilford for Reuters:

Google now shares an ignominy with Microsoft. Judged by the same legal yardstick, Alphabet’s web search colossus is a monopolist just as the software developer was deemed to be in 2001. It might also suffer a similar fate.

Regardless of the remedies, which will be determined later, the victory is a significant one for Jonathan Kanter, the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust chief, and his counterpart at the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan. Both have filed a panoply of lawsuits against tech giants, and the findings in this case will be an important signal to courts presiding over the others, including another one against Google’s ad-tech business.

Mehta’s opinion also finesses the uncomfortable finding that Google is the “highest quality search engine.” Resources play a part. Google estimated that Apple would need to spend $20 billion to build a similar product and billions more to operate it. The primary concern, however, is establishing ubiquity. In 2022, Google paid about $20 billion to be the default option for iPhone buyers, according to the ruling.

MacDailyNews Take: This is a decade or so too late, but at least it’s finally happening!

As regular readers know, we’ve been talking about this issue for years, as ad revenue dwindled – yet Alphabet/Google magically got richer. We’ve all lost many great sites over recent years as the Google-dominated broken ad-supported model failed. This is the very reason why there are too many ads on the site (cluttered is better than dead).

Candidly, it may be too late for us (but, for now, we’re still trying to survive). This will take many years to be rectified and for the once-vibrant digital advertising model to begin working again for publishers, if it ever happens. If you can contribute a couple buck monthly help keep our very independent Apple-focused blog afloat, you can do so here. Thank you in advance!

Even as we attempt to move away from the ad-supported model, we back whatever remedy or remedies will introduce competition back into the online advertising business, which is broken, in part, because far too much power is concentrated with Google/Facebook. This situation is exactly why antitrust laws exist. — MacDailyNews, February 2, 2021

Imagine if your livelihood depended on one company that had not only monopolized web search (and, thereby, basically controlled how new customers find you), but also controlled the bulk of online advertising dollars which funded your business and which they could pull, simply threaten to pull, or reduce rates at any time? Now also imagine if you believe this monopolist basically stole the product of another company that is the very subject of your business? How much would you criticize the monopolist thief’s business practices?

You might guess that it would be a tough road to walk. (We’re only imagining, of course!)

That would be a good example of why monopolies are bad for everyone…

In the meantime, stop using Google search and Google products wherever possible. Monopolies are bad for everyone. — MacDailyNews, July 14, 2016

If you haven’t already, give DuckDuckGo a try! https://duckduckgo.com

With this unprecedented power, platforms have the ability to redirect into their pockets the advertising dollars that once went to newspapers and magazines. No one company should have the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn’t. — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2017

We’d like to see real competition in the online search and advertising markets restored someday. — MacDailyNews, March 20, 2019

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https://macdailynews.com/2024/08/06/in-2022-alone-google-paid-apple-20-billion-to-cement-its-illegal-monopoly/