In October 2020, the DoJ (Department of Justice) launched one of the biggest antitrust cases in US history, comparable with the lawsuit against Microsoft in the 1990s or the AT&T case of the 1970s. The target of the DoJ, in this case, was Google, but, in truth, it could have been any one of the ‘Big Five’ US tech companies, the so-called FAAMG – Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft ad Google – in the firing line.
Nevertheless, Google has been cited for anti-competitive practices involving its search engine, and, as the Washington Post pointed out, it could cause a “ripple effect” for consumers and smaller web companies “for generations”. This should come with a large caveat, however, given that any such action against Google is likely to take years. It’s understandable then that most tech companies, whether small, medium or large, will likely greet those actions in October with a shrug. After all, this threat has been hanging in the air for years.
But it is worth paying at...