A federal probe into Google’s search results could soon end with a settlement that largely keeps the U.S. government out of its business. But one of the search giant’s most vocal critics says that however toothless the potential deal, Google will not have escaped untouched just yet.
Silicon Valley attorney Gary Reback spent years dogging Microsoft, and U.S. authorities, as the Department of Justice pursued its antitrust case against Bill Gates’ company. He now represents clients he describes as specialty search engines that he says Google illegally stifles in its search results.
Reback tells Wired he hasn’t been able to confirm reports in Politico and elsewhere that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission would end its antitrust investigation in exchange for voluntary changes from Google. But he said any such agreement would mean a “complete institutional failure” on the part of the FTC to rectify what he describes as Google’s ravaging of the internet’s competitive landscape in recent years.
“There are some places where Google has been doing bad things for a very long time,” Reback says. “They have so badly damaged competition that if they just stopped right now, the damage has still been done.”
Google has long denied accusations that it games search results to quash competition and favor its own products and services. “We never take actions to hurt specific websites for competitive reasons,” the company says in a FAQ on its website. “Our search quality and ad quality systems assess the quality of web pages and ads without regard to whether a site competes with Google, only on the basis of what is useful for consumers.”
In response to questions about a possible deal with the FTC, a Google spokesperson would only say, “We continue to work cooperatively with the Federal Trade Commission and are happy to answer any questions they may have.”
An FTC spokesman declined to comment.
Even if a voluntary settlement does become official, Reback says that investigations by several state attorneys general and the European Union could still lead to a legal crackdown on Google. The Department of Justice could also intervene, as it did against Microsoft, he says.
Reback’s crusade against Google serves the business interests of his clients. But he also claims Google’s practices are having a chilling effect on nearly all startups that aspire to challenge its dominance, which hurts the economy as a whole by pushing the tech industry closer to the bad old days of telecom.
“We’ll end up like the phone company,” he says. “There will be a couple big companies, but that will be it.”
Anti-Google Crusader Slams Possible Deal in Antitrust Probe
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Anti-Google Crusader Slams Possible Deal in Antitrust Probe
