US authorities convicted Google in violation of competition

The Department of the US Federal Commission for Trade (FTC), engaged in investigations in the field of antimonopoly legislation, found Google guilty of violating the laws of honest competition, CNews reports. This position of the department was set out in the report compiled based on the results of the Google activity check , conducted about two years ago.

From a document that was classified and was at the disposal of The Wall Street Journal journalists only now, it follows that Google illegally used data from competing websites, including Yelp, Tripadvisor and Amazon, to increase the efficiency of its own search engine, while introducing prohibition measures in relation to competing sites and advertisers.

The publication reports that Google, among other things, borrowed user ratings and reviews from competitors. When the injured companies demanded that Google stop this practice, the corporation threatened them with an exception to Google's search results.

According to the department’s report, Google harmed both consumers and the markets of an Internet post and advertising, and also took advantage of its dominant position to combat competitors.

"The threats of the corporation allowed her to achieve the desired effect, which consists in containing Yelp and Tripadvisor. The company used its monopoly in the search market to benefit from innovative technologies of its competitors," the document says.

The investigation also showed that Google introduced prohibitive measures against competing Microsoft Bing and Yahoo search engines. In addition, the company did not allow advertisers to use the statistics collected using its advertising platform on the promotional platforms of competitors.

Experts who were investigating recommended FTC commissars to file a lawsuit against Google. However, in early 2013, the parties came to an agreement. The corporation voluntarily agreed to make adjustments to their behavior, and the commissioners unanimously voted for the end of the investigation. The chairman of the commission, John Leibovitz, said in this regard that the settlement agreement would bring more benefits to consumers than the judicial persecution of the company.

Nevertheless, journalists suggested that the help of the GOOGLE President Barack Obama during his election campaign could be the true reason for the settlement agreement. In the White House, however, they refuted these accusations, noting that the FTC decided on its own.

Recall that some time ago, the Russian company Yandex also accused Google of violating competition and sent the appropriate appeal to the FAS. Representatives of Yandex demanded to check the actions of Google when distributing devices with the Android operating system. In particular, it was noted that Google prohibits mobile devices to pre -establish Yandex services and actually dictates to them the rules of the game, thereby depriving the choice of ordinary users.