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The US government files an antitrust lawsuit against Google

"Countless advertisers must pay a toll to Google's search advertising and general search text advertising monopolies"

The US government files an antitrust lawsuit against Google

The US Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Google for antitrust practices.

As detailed in court documents, The US government has taken issue with Google's search engine practices, claiming it to be anticompetitive. Moreover, it has insisted that while the Alphabet-owned firm was investigated earlier this year, it has adopted even more anticompetitive conduct since.

"Countless advertisers must pay a toll to Google's search advertising and general search text advertising monopolies; American consumers are forced to accept Google's policies, privacy practices, and use of personal data; and new companies with innovative business models cannot emerge from Google's long shadow," reads the complaint.

"For the sake of American consumers, advertisers, and all companies now reliant on the internet economy, the time has come to stop Google's anticompetitive conduct and restore competition."

"Deeply flawed"

Google disagrees with the US government, as it explained that it does not force consumers to use its search engine and that they are aware of alternatives to the tech giant.

"Today's lawsuit by the Department of Justice is deeply flawed. People use Google because they choose to, not because they're forced to, or because they can't find alternatives," said Google senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker in a statement.

"This lawsuit would do nothing to help consumers. To the contrary, it would artificially prop up lower-quality search alternatives, raise phone prices, and make it harder for people to get the search services they want to use."

Keep them coming

Recently, the US antitrust committee completed an investigation into Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google for "monopolistic" practices.

Currently, the US Justice Department case is not the only one faced by Google as Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the tech giant over the Summer. The reason being the removal of Fortnite from Google Play over a new payment option, which prevented the Alphabet-owned firm from taking a commission.

However, last month, Google not only asked to have its case kept separate from Apple's ongoing feud with Epic but to have the lawsuit dismissed altogether.


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Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.