GET DAILY REPORT FREE
The U.S. Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to break up Google, charging that it is illegally monopolizing the search engine market.
In a 32-page court filing on Tuesday, the government suggested a variety of ways to strip back some of the tech giant’s power and create a more distributed market share. Proposed solutions include ending exclusive agreements Google has with companies like Apple and Samsung that make Google the default search engine for Apple and Android devices. It also calls for prohibiting certain types of data tracking.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta plans to issue a decision by August 2025. While the case is still up in the air, Conner LeBlanc senior business development and compliance manager at Baton Rouge tech company General Informatics, believes a divestiture can lead to more innovation in the search engine and tech space. Here is a brief Q&A with LeBlanc regarding some of the issues.
What do you think about the government initiating this lawsuit?
Companies shouldn’t be afraid to grow for fear of Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan’s agency coming after them. However, I do think that Google and several other of these big tech companies definitely have a provable monopoly that stifles competition and innovation. Capitalism only works if you have a free and open market. You shouldn’t go after a company just because they’re tremendously profitable. You should set a precedent for criminalizing monopolies and anti-competitive behavior, not necessarily bigness.
How will this case affect local businesses if Google no longer monopolizes search engines?
Some companies spend tens of thousands of dollars a year on Google Ads because the way that your business gets seen online is through buying advertising space primarily on Google. If you’re spending all this money on Google to get where everyone’s eyeballs are, maybe you’re going to have to start spending that money in other places. Especially if you see Bing or any other search engines start to gain more market share.
Why is it important for the government to make guardrails for tech companies like Google?
I personally don’t really think that the government is the best place to look in order to regulate AI. Ultimately, you want America to be the leader in AI, but you also don’t want these companies to abuse their power and use their influence to create negative outcomes.
What do you predict search engines will look like in the future after this case?
The reason why Google is the most trusted search engine is because people felt like it was going to give them honest results. They didn’t feel like it was too curated. I think that the future of search looks like people just getting answers. They don’t want to have to search through a bunch of answers anymore. In a few years, we’re no longer going to really have to do research. We’re just going to be able to ask questions and get answers immediately with AI.
