The Justice Department's Proposals for Breaking Up Google's Dominance Won't Work
The Department of Justice (DOJ) released its "Proposed Remedy Framework" for the Google antitrust case earlier this month, indicating that it is considering breakup measures for parts of Google's business, alongside other strategies, to curb the company's dominance. The efficacy of the recommendations is questionable. What is certain, however, is that there will be consequences consumers and manufacturers will incur from a less dominant Google.
The federal court case , referenced in the framework, was decided in August and held that Google is an illegal monopoly. In the decision, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia argued, somewhat inconsistently, that Google had cemented its dominance by hiring the best people and innovating constantly, but also mainly because of the advantageous "default distribution" deals that made Google the default search engine on browsers and devices.
The DOJ report hints at a possible forced breakup of Google via "behavioral and structural remedies" to prevent the company from using its ownership of "products such as Chrome, Play, and Android" to its advantage. Other measures include preventing Google from paying other companies for "default distribution" and forcing the company to share its search data to benefit competitors.
