Why the Antitrust Suit Against Google Won’t Have the Same Impact as the Microsoft Case
The recent antitrust suit against Google by the US Department of Justice is reminiscent of the case against Microsoft in 1998. However, the impact of the lawsuit on Google and the tech industry is expected to be far less significant. While Microsoft’s dominance in the late 1990s led to a proposed breakup of the company, Google is just one of many tech giants today. The lawsuit accuses Google of maintaining a monopoly in internet search through payments to smartphone manufacturers and carriers to make it the default search engine. However, switching to other search engines is unlikely to drastically change user behavior. The case against Microsoft fundamentally reshaped the tech industry, but the effects of the Google suit are expected to be less consequential.