Washington, D.C. (11/25/2024) – A new piece by The Wall Street Journal editorial board highlights how the radical remedies proposed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) following the verdict in U.S. v. Google threaten to undermine U.S. innovation, weaken competition, and harm consumers.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board echoes criticism from other leading voices. Just last week, leading tech industry analyst and Stratechery author Ben Thompson noted that “demanding Google give away the result of nearly three decades of development and innovation instead of simply addressing the problem at hand – is too much.”
He argued that the remedy proposals undercut long-standing antitrust principles designed to protect consumers and that the DOJ’s remedy proposals would “diminish and destroy the value of what has already been built, with nary a consideration about whether consumers benefit or not.”
CCIA President & CEO Matt Schruers noted that “the DOJ’s proposed remedies go far beyond Judge Mehta’s ruling. This mixed bag of structural and behavioral remedies would reshape numerous industries and products, harming consumers and innovation in these dynamic markets.”
Senator Rand Paul pointed out in a post on X that overreaching antitrust enforcement actions put the United States’ position as a global technological leader at risk and “only paves the way for foreign companies to gain dominance.”
Excerpts from The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board include:
“[T]he Justice Department’s antitrust cops are now asking a federal court to hobble the search giant, even though their proposals would hurt consumers and could benefit China…
“…No matter, the government now wants to degrade Google’s search-engine quality to help less successful rivals. Start with its proposal to require Google to divest its popular Chrome browser, which by default uses the company’s web search. DOJ says Chrome lets Google collect more data on users to better target ads and refine search results. Yet if advertisers and users benefit from this product integration, what’s the antitrust problem…
“…The main beneficiary would be Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which could bid less for default placement. Note that Microsoft’s market capitalization is 50% larger than Google’s. To hamper one tech giant, DOJ would bolster a competing colossus. Ditto for the government’s plan to block Google from using artificial intelligence to improve its search engine…
“…All of this is taking place as the U.S. is in a high-stakes race with China for the lead in artificial intelligence. Google is an American leader in AI investment. Antitrust policy was designed to police genuine market abuses, not punish companies for success.”
To read the full article, click here.
The Don’t Break What Works campaign is powered by The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). Learn more here.