Nine more US states join ad antitrust legal battle against Google

Nine additional states have signed on to a Department of Justice lawsuit against Google parent Alphabet for monopolizing digital ad sales, bringing the total number of states suing the search giant (in this case) to 17. Attorneys general for Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, …

[Claptrap314]

I keep saying this...

Anti-trust actions only occur when companies are big enough to "matter". Because of this, the decision to prosecute is inherently political.

For information age companies, the resulting fragmentation of data results in the destruction of wealth.

We live in interesting times.

[Paul Herber]

Re: I keep saying this...

I know the owner of a business selling bottled genuine faux albatross farts. There is no competition. None. Nobody cares a Sherman-whatsit.

This time next year they'll be millionaires!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I keep saying this...

For information age companies, the resulting fragmentation of data results in the destruction of wealth.

That's if you believe that "Big Data" is inherently a real source of wealth and value, and not simply that they are running an old school monopoly.

[Claptrap314]

Re: I keep saying this...

I don't believe in inherent wealth of any form. And I have long advocated for reigning in Google. But that does not mean that there is not a price to pay.

Suppose we were to break Apple into two companies, "Physical", selling Macs & iPhones & the like; and "Virtual", operating the iStore & the like. I argue that such a breakup destroys very little wealth--the main difference would be that instead of SVPs or the C-Suite arguing over how to account costs, these negotiated contracts.

But what happens if you break Google up into "Search", "Ads", and "YouTube"? If you let the data flow freely, not much at all. But if actually want to weaken Google's power, you have to stop the data flow. That will destroy wealth--not just for the Google shareholder, but for the economy as a whole. As creepy as the suggested likes on YouTube are, for the vast majority of people, those recommendations *are* useful. Likewise, the tie between search & ads. Ignore the hyper-targetting garbage, I'm talking about adwords. There is real wealth being created by connecting customers who are looking for a term to companies selling things related to it.

****, I'm for straight-up outlawing cross-site tracking and aggregating entirely. I don't owe Google a business model.

[Youngone]

Re: I keep saying this...

Yeah, and I keep saying that this is a bloody stupid way to run a country.

What happened to the elected representatives of the people enacting legislation to set the rules for society?

[Steve Davies 3]

Re: What happened to the elected representatives?

They were mostly bought and paid for by big biz. Only a few in the US Congress are not beholden to big biz. Katie Porter is one of those.

Add to that that politicians in the USA are always searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in order to finance their stupidly corrupt and expensive re-election campaigns it is little wonder that most succumb to the geld laid down at their feet by businesses and lobbyists of all shapes and colours.

Even a senator recently elected for a 6-year term is already out raising money for this next campaign.

The sheer amount of money spent on electioneering in the USA each year would probably be more that the GDP of around 40% of the countries in the world. What a waste of $$$$

[LybsterRoy]

I have a simple solution - make all advertisers only publish text only, short (say with a limit of 25 words), honest and simple adverts eg

scoggle the new shampoo - it cleans your hair!