By Douglas MacMillan and John D. McKinnon
Europe's latest move to rein in Google puts pressure on U.S.
regulators and lawmakers to curb the power of the Silicon Valley
giant -- a step Americans have thus far been reluctant to take.
The European Union slapped Google parent Alphabet Inc. with a $5
billion fine for abusing the dominance of its Android mobile
platform on Wednesday, the EU's second major antitrust action
against the internet search provider in a little more than a
year.
No similar action appears on the horizon in the U.S., where
Google and other top tech companies have benefited from the
prevailing view that their business practices, on the whole,
benefit consumers beyond any concerns they might raise. Their
considerable political clout in Washington also has helped shield
them from scrutiny.
But in recent months, various U.S. policy makers have voiced
concerns that Google's practices are stifling competition and
endangering the privacy of billions of users. These voices have
helped put an assortment of potential policy measures against
Google and other companies on the table.
Democrats such as Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and
Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, along with a handful of
Republicans like Rep. Todd Rokita of Indiana, have called for U.S.
antitrust officials to reopen an investigation into Google.
"The point here is not that bigness is necessarily bad and
certainly not illegal, but the misuse of that bigness and market
power to stifle innovation and consolidate dominance is against the
law," said Sen. Blumenthal in an interview Wednesday.
A spokeswoman for Alphabet declined to comment on the potential
for U.S. regulation.
Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), the chairman of the Senate
subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights,
cautioned against following the European approach, which he said
could undermine competition and innovation in the U.S.
"Appropriate competition policy should serve the interests of
consumers and not be used as a vehicle by competitors to punish
their successful rivals," Mr. Lee said in a statement.
The Federal Trade Commission has broad powers to bring legal
actions against companies that abuse market power. Joseph Simons,
sworn in as FTC chairman in May, said part of his job will be to
look for anticompetitive activity on the big tech platforms. He
recently announced his agency would be embarking on a lengthy
series of hearings around the country to help determine whether
changes in the economy -- including new technologies -- mean that
new enforcement approaches are needed.
"We're going to look closely at what the EU is doing," Mr.
Simons said at a Wednesday House hearing, adding that he had spoken
with EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager on Tuesday. Mr. Simons
noted that the EU has a somewhat different antitrust regime than
the U.S. does. But he added that the FTC has enough legal authority
to determine whether a company is engaging in anticompetitive
behavior.
The FTC closed an earlier probe into Google's search dominance
in 2012 without bringing a case. On the central issue -- whether
Google used anticompetitive tactics for its search engine -- the
competition staff recommended against a lawsuit, although it said
Google's actions resulted in "significant harm" to rivals. In three
other areas, FTC staff found evidence the company used its monopoly
to help its own business and hurt its rivals.
Because the products made by Google and other tech giants are
beneficial to many Americans, any moves to restrict their growth
could ultimately be bad for consumers, said Gus Hurwitz, assistant
law professor at the University of Nebraska and a director at the
International Center of Law and Economics.
"It's hard to see an antitrust claim successfully being brought
and it's hard to justify regulation against these companies," he
says, "without being really cautious about causing collateral harm
to the overall ecosystem."
Despite Google's size -- the company powers nearly all of the
world's searches, owns the operating system used by 80% of
smartphones and is the leading seller of digital ads with 30% of
global sales, according to eMarketer Inc. -- an antitrust case may
be difficult to make under U.S. antitrust laws, which focus on
whether companies have harmed consumers. In many areas, Google is
driving down prices and making life easier for Americans.
"Today's decision rejects the business model that supports
Android, which has created more choice for everyone, not less,"
Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, said in a blog post following the
decision.
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, the antitrust
enforcer at the U.S. Justice Department, has taken an interest in
scrutinizing tech giants. "If there is clear evidence of harm to
competition in digital platforms, enforcers must take vigorous
action and seek remedies that protect American consumers," Mr.
Delrahim said in an April speech in Chicago.
It's also possible that antitrust won't be Google's biggest
concern. As Facebook Inc. has come under fire for its role letting
an outside software developer mishandle the data of tens of
millions of users, Google could be facing more pressure over
privacy in the coming months.
GOP leaders in the House and Senate questioned Alphabet CEO
Larry Page in recent weeks over privacy issues, including whether
the company collects user location data from Android phones and how
outside app developers are permitted to review the personal emails
of Gmail users. In a letter to Mr. Page, a group of senators said
that Google may not be doing enough to safeguard Gmail and asked
the company to detail all the instances in which app developers
have shared Gmail data with third parties.
But at Wednesday's House hearing, Mr. Simons, the FTC chairman,
said he's "a little nervous" that tightening privacy rules in the
wrong way could end up reducing competition by entrenching the
dominance of big players. Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden
(R., Ore.) said he sees the same potential for harm from
overregulation.
--Brent Kendall contributed to this article.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com and John
D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 18, 2018 17:50 ET (21:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Grafico Azioni Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Storico
Da Feb 2024 a Mar 2024
Grafico Azioni Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Storico
Da Mar 2023 a Mar 2024