The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT) reacted with measured optimism today to the Department of Justice’s announcement regarding the Google-ITA merger settlement. The DOJ’s action demonstrates that regulators understand Google’s ability to leverage its dominant position.
“Today’s decision by the Justice Department is a good start on what must be a longer investigatory process,” said ACT President Jonathan Zuck. “Until the industry has greater transparency on how Google search results are created, technology companies will continue to operate at the whim of the search giant. Already declared a monopoly by DOJ, Google openly admits it favors its own properties in search results over competitors. The Justice Department has yet to address Google’s admitted manipulation of search results, but we are cautiously optimistic that antitrust regulators will continue to look into Google’s anti-competitive practices.”
