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The Justice Department is considering breaking up Google (GOOG, GOOGL) in a bold antitrust move, according to a report from Bloomberg. This comes after the tech giant lost a key antitrust case earlier this month, where a court ruled that Google monopolizes online search.
Former Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division Bill Baer joins Catalysts to weigh in on the news and ways Google could be broken up to ensure fairness in the market.
"I think the case is very strong. You know, it's the equivalent of a criminal trial where the jury has come back and found all sorts of bad conduct on Google's behalf. And now we're at really the sentencing phase. It's a civil case, so it's the remedy. How do you restore a market that Google has monopolized for decades and ensure fair competition?" Baer says. He explains that if Google loses the suit, the company will have to provide "meaningful opportunities" for other search engines and advertisers to compete in the market.
One way this could be accomplished is if the Justice Department requires Google to give up its user data, which it sells to advertisers.
"Making that data available to other search engines is one option. It's possible you could separate the Android business or force them to divest Chrome. Those are two ways in which they've been able to maintain their monopoly. The bottom line, though, is in order to make the remedy effective, it has to be strong," Baer explains. "It has to create opportunities for other search engines to compete for our eyeballs and also to have advertisers provide advertisers an alternative way of reaching us."
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This post was written by Melanie Riehl