Washington, D.C. (8/7/2024) – This week, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released a ruling on U.S. v. Google, a case in which the Department of Justice (DOJ) sought to break Google Search, a service that Americans love and regularly choose over the many other choices available to them online.
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) cut to the chase on X, saying “the ruling is a clear win for some competitors, but not so much for consumers.”
Excerpts from statements made by additional experts on the negative impact this decision will have on U.S. competitiveness below:
Chris Mohr, President, Software and Information Industry Association SIIA:
“Today’s federal district court decision against Google, if upheld, sends a message that if you build a better mousetrap, the DOJ will beat a path to your door. The loadstar of U.S. antitrust law is the consumer welfare standard.
“But it is hard to see how Judge Mehta’s decision today in any way benefits consumers. Survey after survey show that consumers trust Google Search as a reliable resource to access information about the world. Consumers have many options from which to choose… The court itself conceded both that Google had earned its users’ trust and that its continuing innovation was instrumental in drawing in new users.”
“Today’s ruling against Google sends the wrong message to innovative companies at a time when the U.S. is in a race to win the next era of innovation…
“Innovative product design should be encouraged. It’s what has repeatedly set US companies apart. Internet browsers should be allowed to improve their products and provide consumers a seamless search experience without the threat of anti-consumer government action…
“At a time when the EU, China and Canada are working overtime to harm our iconic American companies via tariff-style taxes and punitive fees designed as remedies for their non-existent tech economies, we should not be helping them gain an advantage on us through activist rulings.”
Joe Coniglio, Information Technology & Innovation Foundation:
“While the Department of Justice will flaunt today’s decision against Google as a win for the rule of law and innovation, it is actually a dangerous precedent based on faulty antitrust reasoning that will cast a long shadow over the American technology industry…
Patrick Hedger, Taxpayers Protection Alliance:
“Today’s ruling unfortunately ignores the practical realities of the internet search market by accepting an overly narrow definition of the market to benefit the politically motivated plaintiffs at the Department of Justice (DOJ)…
“The ruling…establishes an arbitrary threshold for when routine competitive behavior is now to be considered uncompetitive…
Helping the Competition, Not Consumers
As Chamber of Progress Founder and CEO Adam Kovacevich stated on X, “The biggest winner from this ruling isn’t consumers or ‘little tech,’ but Microsoft and Bing.”
To further prove the point, groups representing Google’s competitors swiftly praised the decision. Fight for the Future, which counts Yelp and DuckDuckGo among its contributors per InfluenceWatch, issued a statement welcoming the decision, as did the Tech Oversight Project, whose primary funders are organizations with ties to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, per The Washington Post.
To learn more about how, throughout the trial, representatives for the popular search engine demonstrated the many choices that consumers have and argued how the government’s efforts benefit companies seeking to compete with Google rather than consumers, click here.
The Don’t Break What Works campaign has championed the products and services that benefit American consumers and pushed back on harmful policies designed to target a few American companies, to the detriment of American consumers.
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