Justice Dept. Explores Google Antitrust Case - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is exploring whether to open a case against Google for potential antitrust violations, putting renewed scrutiny on the company amid a growing chorus of criticism about the power of Big Tech, three people with knowledge of the deliberations said Friday.

An investigation into how Google arranges search results could revive a case closed in 2013 by another government agency, the Federal Trade Commission. The five F.T.C. commissioners voted unanimously at the time against bringing charges against the company. Google agreed to make some changes to search practices tied to advertising.

But this year, with a new antitrust task force announced in February, the trade commission renewed its interest in Google. In recent weeks, the commission referred complaints about the company to the Justice Department, which also oversees antitrust regulations, according to two people familiar with the actions. The commission has also told companies and others with complaints against Google to take them to the Justice Department.

The task force had been looking into Google’s advertising practices and influence in the online advertising industry, according to two of the people. One of the people said the agency was also looking into its search practices. Most of Google’s revenue comes from advertisements tied to its search results.

A Justice Department spokesman, Jeremy Edwards, declined to comment, as did representatives for Google and the F.T.C.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported on the Justice Department’s potential inquiry into Google.

If the Justice Department opens a formal investigation, it will be its first major antitrust case against a big tech company during the Trump administration. Google, Facebook and Amazon have come under intense bipartisan criticism, and calls to break up the firms have become a talking point in the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Political leaders and consumer advocacy groups have criticized American regulators for inaction against tech companies. Google, Amazon and Facebook have faced stiff penalties from a variety of European regulators for antitrust and privacy issues. This year, European regulators fined Google 1.5 billion euros for antitrust violations in the online advertising market, the third antitrust move against the company by European officials in three years.

American regulators have been investigating Facebook’s privacy practices, and the outcome is widely seen as a test of the nation’s ability to police how giant tech firms handle user data. The F.T.C. is negotiating a settlement with Facebook that expected to be as much as $5 billion for failing to protect its users’ data from being used for political profiling by Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that had worked for President Trump’s presidential campaign.

There has been a wave of new antitrust scrutiny into tech companies in Washington, including a Senate hearing in May on digital advertising that featured accusations that Google engaged in anticompetitive practices.

The call to regulate and scrutinize Big Tech has also become a consistent campaign promise among Democratic presidential candidates, even longtime friends of Silicon Valley such as Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts brought her “Break Up Big Tech” slogan to a billboard in San Francisco this week.

“Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy,” Ms. Warren wrote in a blog post on Medium this year.

When the F.T.C. announced the antitrust task force, the agency’s chairman, Joseph J. Simons, said it had been created because technology companies presented new challenges to decades-long regulation of antitrust. Companies like Google and Facebook offer free services and can argue that alternative search and social networks are a click away for consumers. That can complicate arguments that the services harm consumers or stifle competition.

The task force has started to steer complaints about Google to the Justice Department’s antitrust division. The department and the F.T.C. regularly negotiate over who has jurisdiction over antitrust cases, including investigations into competition violations and the review of mergers.

While some of the complaints against Google are years old, there has been a surge of new ones in recent months as concerns over Silicon Valley’s influence and power have grown, according to one of the people with knowledge of deliberations.

Stephen Kaufer, the chief executive of TripAdvisor, a company that has complained about Google’s practices in the past, said he welcomed the new scrutiny on the tech giant.

“TripAdvisor remains concerned about Google’s practices in the U.S., the E.U. and throughout the world,” he said in a statement, referring to the European Union. “For the good of consumers and competition on the internet, we welcome any renewed interest by U.S. regulators into Google’s anticompetitive behavior.”

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