AMERICA’S trustbusters have long had their sights set on big tech. On September 12th in Washington they at last fired their opening shots in the first courtroom battle of the modern internet era. The Department of Justice (DoJ), along with 38 state attorneys-general, accuses Google of abusing its online-search monopoly to extract bigger profits, snuff out competition and slow innovation.
The case hinges on Google’s deals with smartphone makers and other firms that, the DoJ claims, perpetuate its dominance of search. Google allegedly pays more than $10bn a year to companies like Apple to make its search engine the default on devices. Although
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