How Many Antitrust Lawsuits is Google Facing?

The search giant Google is facing a barrage of antitrust lawsuits from attorneys general in most U. S. states, as well as the Department of Justice. Depending on the outcome of these cases, a loss followed by increased scrutiny could make it difficult for “big tech companies” to buy out their smaller competitors.

These antitrust lawsuits against Google would set a precedent for further investigation and scrutiny of major technology conglomerates, such as Facebook, Amazon and Apple. In addition to the latest antitrust challenge, Google is also facing an ongoing lawsuit from the Department of Justice and several states that allege that it used exclusion contracts to ensure the default state of its applications on the devices of manufacturers that used its Android mobile operating system. Decades ago, the Department's case against Microsoft recognized that antitrust laws prohibit anticompetitive agreements between high-tech monopolies to require a pre-installed default state, close distribution channels to rivals, and make software unable to be eliminated. This is harder to sell than Google's supposed monopoly on ad server space, because according to the states' own figures, “AdX represents at least 44 billion web viewing transactions per month in the United States, which, according to state demand, represents only about 30% of all monthly transactions on all local ad exchanges.

The Lanier law firm filed a 130-page lawsuit with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which was joined by nine other state attorneys general. By filing this lawsuit, the Department seeks to stop Google's anti-competitive behavior and restore competition for American consumers, advertisers and all companies that now depend on the Internet economy.All of these antitrust lawsuits against Google claim that the tech giant used its growing reach to discourage competition in Internet search and Internet advertising, which ultimately allowed it to remain the most important player and continue to grow with minimal invasion by smaller companies and firms in their related markets.