{"id":1629,"date":"2024-11-22T13:08:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T13:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/?p=1629"},"modified":"2025-10-26T02:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T02:15:23","slug":"the-google-antitrust-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/2024\/11\/22\/the-google-antitrust-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Google Antitrust Case(s)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<title>Center for Policy Studies Public Affairs Discussion Group &#8211; The Google Antitrust Case(s). With Anat Alon-Beck, J.D., Associate Professor of Law.<\/title><\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" width=\"640\" style=\"padding:3px\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"702\" align=\"center\" valign=\"top\" style=\"margin: -1.9px 2px 2px 2px;padding:5px\">\n<table style=\"padding:px\" align=\"center\" width=\"637\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"629\" colspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" style=\"margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px;text-align: center;font-size: 12px\">\n<p style=\"width: 100%;text-align: left;margin:                      3px 0px 0px;font-size: 24px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/238\/2024\/06\/07135207\/cas_logo_newsletters2.jpg\" alt=\"CAS\" longdesc=\"http:\/\/policy.case.edu\" height=\"100\" width=\"328\"><br \/><strong><font face=\"Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\" color=\"#0a304e\">Center for Policy Studies<br \/>Public Affairs Discussion Group<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" style=\"margin: -4px -4px -4px -4px;text-align: center;font-size: 0px\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table style=\"margin: -1.9px 2px 2px 2px\" align=\"center\" width=\"640\">\n<tr>\n<td width=\"502\" valign=\"top\" style=\"padding: 3px\">\n<table width=\"627\">\n<tr>\n<td width=\"98%\" height=\"33\" align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" style=\"margin: 0px 2px 2px 2px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 24px;padding: 1px\"><strong><font color=\"#0a304e\">The Google Antitrust Case(s)<\/font><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table width=\"627\">\n<tr>\n<td width=\"70%\" align=\"left\" valign=\"top\" style=\"margin: 0px 2px 2px 2px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14px;padding: 2px\"><img align=\"left\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/238\/2025\/10\/26021304\/alon-beck_anat2.jpg\" hspace=\"3\"><\/p>\n<p>                   <font color=\"#0a304e\"><strong>Anat Alon-Beck, J.D. &#8211; Associate Professor of Law<\/strong><\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"70%\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"FFFFFF\" style=\"margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14px;padding: 2px\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><strong>Friday November 22, 2024<br \/>\n\t12:30-1:30 p.m.<br \/>Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom<br \/>\nDampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library<\/strong><\/font><font size=\"3\" color=\"#990000\"><strong>*<\/strong><\/font><br \/>\n<font color=\"#0a304e\"><strong>Case Western Reserve University<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font color=\"#0a304e\">Dear Colleagues:<\/font><\/p>\n<p>\t<font color=\"#0a304e\"><strong>I don\u2019t think most of us would have much trouble believing that Google uses monopoly power to get advantages over its customers and competitors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of course we also might not think that\u2019s all that unusual in this era of what might be called <strong>I<\/strong>ncredibly <strong>B<\/strong>ig <strong>T<\/strong>ech. Between Google, Apple, Meta\/Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon (at least) we are surrounded by gigantic corporations.<br \/>\nWe also might wonder if the antitrust laws as interpreted by courts can seriously restrain the IBT companies\u2019 market power; and especially whether there are plausible remedies, at what cost.<\/p>\n<p>Antitrust law enforcement was fairly weak for a period of decades, partly because potential regulators<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stlouisfed.org\/publications\/regional-economist\/july-1998\/does-big-business-need-taming-the-role-of-economics-in-antitrust-law\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>in the \u201c1970s and 1980s\u2026<\/u><\/font><\/a> <font color=\"#0a304e\">adopted a laissez-faire approach to antitrust policy\u201d and \u201cargued that a firm\u2019s size did not matter and that the benchmark for bringing an antitrust case should be the exertion of market power that demonstrably hurts consumers.\u201d This meant less attention to how very large firms could squeeze out competitors and posed the obvious problem of how one could show that companies that had grown to dominate a new market were harming millions or billions of consumers who hadn\u2019t quite ever had alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>A reaction began, in part, with the Justice Department\u2019s suit in the 1990s against Microsoft\u2019s<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/14\/business\/google-antitrust-microsoft-precedent.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>\u201cstranglehold on personal computer software,\u201d<\/u><\/font><\/a> <font color=\"#0a304e\">which ended in a consent decree approved in a series of stages in the 2000s. As Professors Anat Alon-Beck, Rita Bryce, Eric Chaffee and Raymond Ku<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/outputs\/599433644\/?t=undefined-599433644\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>have argued<\/u><\/font><\/a><font color=\"#0a304e\">, the Microsoft case provides some context for current litigation against Google.<\/p>\n<p>But the Google situation is a bit more complicated for a few reasons. First, in the past 25 years the European Union has become another venue for competition regulation. Second, Google at the moment faces multiple federal government proceedings. In August, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/10\/09\/nx-s1-5146006\/justice-department-sanctions-google-search-engine-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>ruled<\/u><\/font><\/a> <font color=\"#0a304e\">that \u201cGoogle had acted illegally to maintain a monopoly on the search engine market,\u201d \u201cthe culmination of an antitrust lawsuit that the Justice Department filed against Google in 2020, which was joined by 38 state attorneys general.\u201d That lawsuit is now in the stage of arguing about remedies (and presumably fighting over appeals as well).  Meantime, a trial began in September over claims that Google has built and maintained a monopoly over online advertising technology, again giving it market power that allows it to \u201c<\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/google-antitrust-ad-tech-virginia-opening-7a19f525287f782609a5316b1fdb08f0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>keep as much as 36 cents on the dollar<\/u><\/font><\/a> <font color=\"#0a304e\">when it brokers sales between publishers and advertisers.\u201d In a third case, after losing a jury trial, Google has been ordered to \u201c<\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2024\/oct\/07\/google-play-store-epic-games-antitrust-lawsuit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>open up its lucrative App store<\/u><\/font><\/a><font color=\"#0a304e\">, Play, to greater competition, including making Android apps available from rival sources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In partial response, Google has gone after Microsoft, filing an antitrust complaint<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2024\/09\/25\/google-microsoft-antitrust-eu-cloud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>with European competition authorities<\/u><\/font><\/a> <font color=\"#0a304e\">in ways that (by<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.microsoft.com\/on-the-issues\/2024\/10\/28\/googles-shadow-campaigns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>Microsoft\u2019s account<\/u><\/font><\/a>)<font color=\"#0a304e\">, involve some rather underhanded political tactics. Meantime, it is hard not to wonder whether the sheer volume of litigation suggests that lawsuits are not going to be the appropriate way to make policy, leading to calls for<\/font> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/articles\/googles-antitrust-troubles-demonstrate-the-need-for-a-digital-regulator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>\u201ca digital regulator.\u201d<\/u><\/font><\/a><font color=\"#0a304e\"><\/p>\n<p>There are all sorts of other reasons for something like that \u2013 setting some sort of limits on AI comes quickly to my mind. But even if we just see this as an antitrust or economic competition question, it just seems to be getting hotter and hotter.  Most of the links in the description above are from the past two months.  What on earth is happening, what might happen next and, by the way, how might any of this be affected by the new administration? That too is <\/font><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2024\/11\/17\/big-tech-antitrust-ftc-lina-khan-biden-trump-mergers-acquisitions-deals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><font color=\"#0a304e\"><u>not at all clear<\/u><\/font><\/a><font color=\"#0a304e\">.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Please join us as Professor Alon-Beck reports on her and her colleagues\u2019 analysis of the situation, from the relative effectiveness of the Microsoft settlement to the most recent developments.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Best wishes for safety and security for you and yours,<\/p>\n<p>    Joe White<br \/>\n    Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies<\/font>\n  <\/p>\n<hr width=\"100%\" style=\"padding:0px\" \/>\n<h3><font color=\"#0a304e\">About Our Guest<\/font><\/h3>\n<p><font color=\"#0a304e\"><strong>Anat Alon-Beck\u2019s<\/strong> research focuses on corporate law and governance. Her work examines how legal and regulatory structures influence the shift in equities from public markets to private markets, and the rise in the number of \u201cunicorn\u201d firms, which are privately held venture-capital backed startups that are valued at $1 billion or more. She hopes to develop a novel, comprehensive framework within which a deeper understanding of market contracting, regulatory changes, and policy surrounding unicorn firms can be achieved. Her research on these issues is frequently cited by policymakers, judges, leading scholars in the corporate law and finance fields. It was cited to US Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n<p>\tProfessor Alon-Beck joined the faculty of Case Western Reserve from New York University School of Law, where she served as the Jacobson Fellow in Law and Business. Prior to NYU, she was a visiting assistant professor of International Business and Management at Dickinson College.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Alon-Beck holds JSD and LLM degrees, with honors, from Cornell Law School, where she served as an editor of the <em>Cornell International Law Journal<\/em>. She received her LLB from Tel Aviv University Buchmann Faculty of Law and served as an editor of <em>Theoretical Inquiries in Law<\/em>.<\/font><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"3\" valign=\"top\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" style=\"margin: -4px -4px -4px -4px;text-align: center;font-size: 0px\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<table style=\"margin: -4px 2px 2px 2px;padding: 0px\" align=\"center\" width=\"640\">\n<tr>\n<td style=\"margin-top: 0px;padding: 0px;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14px\">\n<p align=\"center\"> Visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/fridaylunch.case.edu\"><font color=\"#004480\">Public Affairs Discussion Group Web Site.<\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"> Center for Policy Studies | Mather House<br \/>\n        111 | 11201 Euclid Avenue |<br \/>\n        Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7109 |&nbsp;Phone: 216.368.6730 |&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:padg@case.edu\"><font color=\"#004480\"><u>padg@case.edu<\/u><\/font><\/a> |<br \/>Part of the:&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.case.edu\/artsci\"><font color=\"#004480\"><u>College of Arts and Sciences<\/u><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"center\">&copy; 2024 Case Western Reserve University |<br \/> Cleveland, Ohio<br \/>\n        44106 | 216.368.2000 |&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.case.edu\/legal.htm\"><font color=\"#004480\"><u>legal notice<\/u><\/font><\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\nCenter for Policy Studies Public Affairs Discussion Group &#8211; The Google Antitrust Case(s). With Anat Alon-Beck, J.D., Associate Professor of Law.<\/p>\n<p style=\"width: 100%;text-align: left;margin:                      3px 0px 0px;font-size: 24px\"><strong>Center for Policy StudiesPublic Affairs Discussion Group<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                <strong>The Google Antitrust Case(s)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>                   <strong>Anat Alon-Beck, J.D. &#8211; Associate Professor of Law<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Friday November 22, 2024<br \/>\n\t12:30-1:30 p.m.Meeting Both In-Person and by Zoom<br \/>\nDampeer Room, Second Floor of Kelvin Smith Library<\/strong><strong>*<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>Case Western Reserve University<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dear Colleagues:<\/p>\n<p>\t<strong>I don\u2019t think most of us would have much trouble believing that Google uses monopoly power to get advantages over its customers and competitors.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/2024\/11\/22\/the-google-antitrust-cases\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading&#8230; <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Google Antitrust Case(s)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1629"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1633,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1629\/revisions\/1633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/fridaylunch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}