Tech Monopolies Are Here to Stay

Google was declared an “illegal monopoly.” Its punishment — permission to continue acting as one

Image: Badly edited by author

Earlier this year, Google was declared an “illegal monopoly.”

In what was a landmark ruling, the company was sued for anti-competitive practices (example: Google has paid 180 billion dollars to make sure its search product is the default on Apple and Samsung smartphones), and judges threatened them with a forceful break-up, pushing to make Google sell off its Chrome Browser and potentially its Android division.

Action against Big Tech, the results of which might benefit users? Quite the statement.

A few months on, the punishment has been served. Except, it’s less of a punishment and more of a watered-down slap on the wrist. Rather than deliver anything meaningful, Google has been given a ‘pass go’ to continue crushing the competition by any means necessary, whether that’s neutering its visibility or opening its endless chequebook.

In the end, Google will be forced to share some search data with its competitors around search index, user-interaction and search text, and put some restrictions on the payments it uses to get default status in browsers and on smartphones. Those restrictions are that it can no longer demand exclusivity.