Facebook and Google 'will be hit with FOUR more antitrust lawsuits in the coming weeks' in latest move against Big Tech
Facebook and Google are expected to be hit with four more antitrust lawsuits in the next few weeks, sources have told The Wall Street Journal.
Google has already been sued by the Department of Justice for its practices which they say unfairly corners the market and makes it impossible for anyone to compete.
Now, the sources say authorities are gearing up to level similar accusations at Facebook - which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - and that it plans to bring more claims against Google.
It is the latest move against Big Tech by the outgoing Trump administration and comes after years of concern on both sides of the aisle about how much power the two companies have.
Google is being investigated for its dominance of search and advertising, whereas Facebook is being investigated for its dominance of social media.
In the lawsuit filed last month, the Justice Department alleged that Google used unfair practices to dominate the market.
Facebook has not yet been named as a defendant in an antitrust lawsuit but Google has. CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai
It was previously reported that as many as seven states were planning to file lawsuits against Google.
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S GOOGLE LAWSUIT AT A GLANCE
The Department of Justice lawsuit claims that Google is breaching The Sherman Act by unfairly locking up portions of the market.
There are three facets to how the government claims it does this;
1) Dominating search engine space
Google, through both its deals placing its search engine above others on devices and through public interest in it, accounts for 80 percent of every internet search in the US
In 2020, it accounted for 94% of all mobile searches in the US
2) Monetizing its dominance through ads
Google monetizes the amount people use it with ads, which generate around $40billion in revenue every year
3) Spending its billions to cement its dominance with 'exclusionary deals'
With the money it makes through ads, Google pays companies like Apple, LG and others to block out any of its competitors from having their search engine preferred on devices
Among the deals is one with Apple. Google is the default on Safari on iPhones and it's also the default on Siri.
The deal amounts to up to a fifth of Apple's worldwide income which last year would have been around $11billion
The states are Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.
The lawsuit is separate from a widely anticipated Texas antitrust action that could also come before the end of the year.
The states argue that Google is illegally protecting its dominant position in the market for search and search advertising with the deals it has struck with companies like Apple.
One source said the states planned to file the lawsuit in federal court in mid to late December while the second said the target date was December 15.
In October, the Department of Justice and the Republican Attorneys General of 11 states filed their lawsuit claiming Google has for years operated unlawfully to control the internet and squash competitors, depriving the market of competition and consumers of innovation and choice.
It poses serious questions over the power of big tech, which is coming under increased scrutiny under the Trump administration, and what rights the government has to control or limit it.
Google's SVP of Global Affairs, Kent Walker, published the response to the lawsuit in which he said it was 'trivially easy' to change an internet browser and that the Justice Department was 'deeply flawed'.
He picked apart the government's lawsuit by subject, starting with the laws it is trying to claim Google is breaking, calling them 'dubious' and saying it was 'trivially easy' to change your internet browser.
The response is likely to enrage Republicans and investigators, who have spent the last 16 months investigating the case.
'This isn't the dial-up 1990s when changing services was slow and difficult, and often required you to buy and install software with a CD-ROM,' Walker said.
'This lawsuit claims that Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to do this. But we know that’s not true,' he said.
The DoJ is invoking The Sherman Act which is designed to stop businesses from blocking competitors from the market.