Publication

The recent ruling by a federal district judge to apply the “illegal monopoly” label to Google’s search engine is bureaucratic and judicial overreach that establishes a dangerous precedent for free enterprise and innovation across all sectors of the economy. It will also harm Google’s consumers and partners.

It isn’t our government’s role to dictate consumer choices or pick winners and losers, particularly when allegations of wrongdoing stem from business competitors rather than individuals. As the case enters the remedies phase, the Department of Justice may soon move to dismantle and break up a company for the first time since AT&T in the 1980s — an extreme posture, even for the Biden-Harris administration and Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan.

Competition policy works best when it prioritizes consumers and innovation, not when it demonizes the size of companies for its own sake. Judge Amit Mehta’s decision in U.S. et al. v. Google veers into the outdated belief that “big is inherently bad,” a mindset that U.S. jurisprudence moved away from decades ago.

Read more here.