Google faces two antitrust lawsuits in less than 24 hours in the US | National and international economy

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, filed a second antitrust lawsuit on Thursday in less than 24 hours. A lawsuit filed Wednesday by a dozen states, led by Texas, for abusing its market position in advertising management onlineThis is followed by this new legal action against technology by 38 states and territories of the country, accusing it of trying to extend its monopoly in search engines to smart speakers, televisions and cars. In October, the Justice Department dealt the first legal blow to the California-based company, whose market value is estimated at $ 1 trillion (approximately $ 815,000 million), considering that it has suffered illegal monopolistic Internet searches. and advertising online. It is not the only one of the big five (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google) that is on the ropes, since the US trade regulator and attorneys general from 46 states and two territories (Colombia and Guam) have sued Facebook a week ago for monopoly.

The increasing examination of common technological practices seems to have reached cruising speed, judging by the coincidence of the last two processes. In the latter case, a new charge is added to the alleged antitrust law in search engines: the fact that, according to prosecutors, Alphabet wanted to expand its dominant position in the market to the latest technologies, in areas so far little explored like smart speakers; in fact, the lawsuit took the form of complaints from smart speaker manufacturer Sonos and other companies in the field, which claim that Google acted unfairly to gain market share. Google’s alleged attempt to monopolize this new market would, for example, eliminate the competitiveness of the well-known technology assistant Amazon Alexa.

“Google is preventing its competitors in the voice assistant market from reaching consumers connected cars [automóviles con sistema integrado de seguridad de internet], which is a significant means of accessing the Internet in the future, “Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller explained when he filed the complaint. The California company fell nearly a point in Thursday’s session on Wall Street. two hours to the end.

Just 24 hours earlier, the tech giant faced another similar lawsuit filed by a group of Republican attorneys general – there is an almost unanimous agreement in the two major parties, albeit for different reasons, when it comes to power cuts. all-encompassing technology companies for violating antitrust law in collaboration with Facebook to promote its commercial advertising management online. The plaintiffs claim compensation from Alphabet for damages, as well as a “structural exemption” from the company, which in practice means the divestment of some of its assets. In the case filed against Facebook last week, he is invited to give up the social network Instagram and the instant messaging service WhatsApp, two companies that, according to the indictment, he bought to eliminate competitors.

The two consecutive lawsuits against Google are the latest, for the time being, in the growing offensive to limit the power of major technologies, both in the US and in the European Union. Along with those on Facebook, they promise to be the biggest antitrust cases of a generation, following the one brought by the Justice Department and 20 states against Microsoft in 1998, whose false closure is credited with paving the way for massive growth. of the internet. . Microsoft was accused of a monopoly on sales of the operating system and web browser of old computers with Intel engines, and the dispute was resolved by an agreement between the parties, much criticized by some litigating states.