A US government antitrust case against internet search giant Google looks strong but could face a tough court battle, experts warn.
Google was sued Oct. 20 for harming competition in online search and advertising through distribution agreements and other restrictions that put its search engine at the center of every time consumers browse the Web.
To win, the US Department of Justice must prove that Google gained or maintained monopoly power through abusive conduct, or something beyond merit-based competition.
Some legal experts say Google's alleged wrongdoing looks similar to the charges the US government brought against Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s.
That case was settled in 2002 with a consent decree that required the maker of the Windows operating system to stop retaliating against computer makers who used non-Microsoft software.
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Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a professor at Vanderbilt Law School, said the Justice Department acted wisely, providing credible arguments in its 59-page complaint.
"They are sticking to the existing law," she said.
Eleven US states have joined the government's lawsuit, and New York Attorney General Letitia James said her state and six others may soon file their own suit.
Experts say the federal government is unlikely to back down and, in fact, may press harder if Democrat Joe Biden wins against incumbent Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.
Google is expected to argue that the government overestimated the company's power, defining its market as too narrow.
But some experts say Google's eligibility makes the case hinge on two things: whether the dominance stems from consumers preferring it over its rivals, or whether the California-based company has lured consumers away from its rivals.
"We know that Google has a large share of this market," said John Lopatka, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University. "The question is: why", he added.
Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University, said the US government claims Google is preventing more consumer-friendly search engines - such as those that don't collect user data to personalize ads - for gain popularity.
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But, according to him, Google can argue that its search engine is effective in generating the results that consumers want and that "it was not meant to be an exception".
Or, according to Lopatka, Google could say: "We've been an admired company and we've done really good work, that's why we've become so dominant."
Rapidly rising prices often indicate that customers have been harmed by anti-competitive behavior.
But Google offers its search services for free, and that adds to the Department of Justice's challenges.
"The trend in case law, in Supreme Court decisions involving dominant firms, has been to give large companies wide latitude to choose the business strategies they prefer," said William Kovachich, professor of Law at George Washington University and former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
"If you're a plaintiff, including a government plaintiff, that's hard to overcome — not impossible, just very hard," he said.
According to experts, even if the Department of Justice proves that Google has created a monopoly and abused the power of the monopoly, the court may find it difficult to create measures that would improve competition in searches.
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"Making a search engine is not easy," said Chris Sagers, a law professor at Cleveland State University.
According to him, "it seems extremely unlikely that any other firm will challenge Google in a meaningful way"/REL.
