the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Washington DC, the Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google Tuesday, focusing on the tech giant’s dominance in online search. Eleven Republican state attorneys general joined the DOJ as plaintiffs in the case: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas, according to an open docket of the case filed Tuesday morning.
Google’s stock barely moved following news of the suit. Shares were slightly positive as of Tuesday morning.
The DOJ and states are bringing the complaint under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, alleging Google has unlawfully maintained monopolies in markets for “general search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising,” according to the lawsuit. They claim Google has maintained its monopoly through “anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.”
The Sherman Antitrust Act was enacted in 1890 to curtail combinations of power that interfere with trade and reduce economic competition. It outlaws both formal cartels and attempts to monopolize any part of commerce in the United States.
Section 2 of the Sherman Act makes it illegal to “monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations.”