According to Reuters, top brass at the FTC is convinced it should bring an antitrust case against Google. The writing’s been on the wall since last year, but it looks like things could finally be coming to a head.
The Reuters report says that four out of five FTC commissioners are convinced that Google used its market dominance to elbow out rival search engines. The accusation is the same as it’s been for more than a year: Google tweaked its rules and algorithm to favour its products ahead of its rivals’.
Google was subpoenaed last June, and the FTC expanded its case this January. Then in April, it hired a prosecutor for the case. So this isn’t much of a surprise.
it’s not clear what the stakes would be for Google in an antitrust case, but at the very, very least it would expect some pretty heavy fines if it were found to be in violation of antitrust law. [Reuters]