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2012 FTC Antitrust Probe Into Google: Documents Exposed Reveal "real harm to consumers and to innovation"
Key staff of the Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google Inc. used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and competitors, a far harsher analysis of Google’s business than was previously known.
The staff report from the agency’s bureau of competition, which hasn’t before been disclosed, recommended the commission bring a lawsuit challenging three separate Google practices, a move that would have triggered one of the highest-profile antitrust cases since the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp. in the 1990s.2012 FTC Antitrust Probe Into Google: Documents Exposed Reveal "real harm to consumers and to innovation" [wsj.com]
“This document appears to show that the FTC had direct evidence from Google of intentional search bias,” said Luther Lowe, the vice president of public policy for Yelp.
The Wall Street Journal viewed portions of the document after the agency inadvertently disclosed it as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. The FTC declined to release the undisclosed pages and asked the Journal to return the document, which it declined to do.
On the most important issue, that of Google’s prized search engine, the FTC report said Google altered it to benefit its own services at the expense of rivals. The report said Google “adopted a strategy of demoting, or refusing to display, links to certain vertical websites in highly commercial categories.”
asked the Journal to return the document, which it declined to do.
The WSJ discloses interesting additional details from the report. Among them, Google estimated its own share of the US market (in 2012) at between 69 and 84 percent. By comparison, comScore reported that it was 65 percent.[searchengineland.com...]
FTC’s competition bureau argued that the owner of the world’s leading Internet search engine illegally took information from rival websites to improve its own search results and placed restrictions on websites and advertisers.
FTC’s competition bureau argued that the owner of the world’s leading Internet search engine illegally took information from rival websites to improve its own search results and placed restrictions on websites and advertisers.
The staff said Google also broke antitrust law by placing restrictions on websites that publish its search results from also working with rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing and Yahoo Inc.
The commission made no mention of this issue in its final report, nor did it secure any commitments from Google to change its policies.
Everyone can take their tinfoil hats off now!
Now the question is why did the plug get pulled on the investigation, against the FTC staff's recommendation? How far up does Google's reach in Washington D.C. go?
"My sense is that the lobbying makes the companies feel good and lobbyists feel good," Leibowitz said. "At the end of the day, whether you want to say lobbying had any influence, or canceled itself out because there was lobbying on both sides, if you're going to do what lobbyists want you to do in a regulatory agency, you're not doing your job."
That may be unfair or even anti-competitive, but it's no different from Fox News claiming to be "Fair & balanced" when it's anything but.
he FTC's job is to protect American consumers, they dropped the ball here. The consumer believes they are receiving un-biased information from google, the FTC knows this is not the case and they know it is harmful to the consumer yet they failed to act.
An "inadvertently disclosed" report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) labels Google a monopoly and appears to directly contradict the decision not to pursue legal action against the company. In early 2013 the FTC formally decided to close its antitrust investigation against Google demanding only modest changes in the company's business practices.
It turns out a vocal contingent inside the FTC wanted stronger action.
One thing to keep in mind: In the U.S. (the country we're talking about here), Google's organic search rankings are protected by the First Amendment. For example: In Search King, Inc. v. Google Technology, Inc., a federal judge ruled that "Neither Search King nor any other web site has the option of demanding a particular Page Rank, or even whether their web site will be accessible on Google's search engine. In short, Google owes no duty to rank, or refrain from ranking, Search King or any other web site."
One of the accusations against Google is that it demoted or otherwise gave unfair treatment to shopping-comparison sites in its organic SERPs. That may be unfair or even anti-competitive, but it's no different from Fox News claiming to be "Fair & balanced" when it's anything but. My guess: The hotheads in the FTC's Competition Bureau wanted to go after Google, regardless of the First Amendment and the likely outcome, but wiser heads prevailed. Maybe the Competition Bureau folks would have had better luck with the Commissioners if they'd focused on aspects of their complaint where the law was on their side.
I wonder why the WSJ didn't put the complete 160-page document online?
And they still call it an algorithm even though it is operated manually?
The legal question is whether Google abused their monopoly as, unfortunately, a company cannot be broken up just to end a monopoly.
2012 FTC Antitrust Probe Into Google: Documents Exposed Reveal "real harm to consumers and to innovation"
Key staff of the Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google Inc. used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and competitors, a far harsher analysis of Google’s business than was previously known.
The staff report from the agency’s bureau of competition, which hasn’t before been disclosed, recommended the commission bring a lawsuit challenging three separate Google practices, a move that would have triggered one of the highest-profile antitrust cases since the Justice Department sued Microsoft Corp.
