Will Google be broken up?
After a US judge ruled in August that Google is a monopolist company that has actively violated antitrust laws, the Department of Justice has now threatened consequences. According to Washington, the group may have to be divided up into different divisions. Europe's press is following the developments closely.
Make competition fairer again
La Stampa approves:
“The document presented on Tuesday offers a range of options, including dividing up the various business units. The Department of Justice speaks of 'behavioural and structural remedies' to prevent Google from using products such as the Chrome browser, the Play app store and the Android operating system to give its search engine a competitive advantage. Judge Amit Mehta had already established in August that Google spent tens of billions to secure its search engine's dominant position. It did this by imposing an exclusivity contract on customers and users of its services.”
No simple solutions for complex problems
The Financial Times has reservations:
“Forcing Google to strip away Chrome or Android - which help to promote its search tool - risks being ineffective and too retrospective. A break-up will have little impact if it can still make deals to be the default search engine. Even when users have the choice they still tend to opt for Google's search tool over the likes of Microsoft's Bing. A misguided focus on size is also not the best message to send to other rapidly scaling tech businesses. ... Talk of breaking up Google is an oversimplified answer to a complex problem.”
Belated damage control
It's the politicians themselves who are to blame for allowing things to come this far, the Frankfurter Rundschau points out:
“For years they looked the other way while Google grew larger and larger. Then when the full power of the new monopoly became clear, it was too late. Now the competition watchdogs are trying to limit the damage. However, there are many indications that the goal is to make it look like the evil monopolist is being wrapped on the knuckles. But even a fine of 2.4 billion euros - as recently imposed on Google - will hardly hurt a company of this size. And the threat to break up the company poses obstacles and is unlikely to be implemented. The last time a US government succeeded in breaking up a giant was 40 years ago with AT&T.”