England: Google's another multi-million pound, £5 billion ($6.64 billion) legal dent in the beginning. A company in London has sued the giant tech corporation for the misuse of the online related market. The case is by UK competition law and alleges that Google has maintained unfair practices that most likely will affect competitors and consumers.
The lawsuit further gives that Google secured its monopoly by signing up deals with phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome on their Android devices, and, again, through paying off Apple to designate Google as the default search engine for every iPhone. The contracts, it goes on, are making unfair barriers for rival search engines and narrowing available choice before consumers.
Also, it asserts that Google has favored its own advertising services by providing those with more advanced functionalities and features not equally available to comparable competitives. This, the suit says, strengthens even further Google's grip on the market for digital advertising, exacerbating the conditions under which other players operate.
The case has now been filed in London, and this could be seen as a decisive step towards holding tech companies accountable in international markets, given the recent barrage of scrutiny leveled against the companies in Europe and the U.S. Google has not yet released any official reaction to the claims, but the outcome of this lawsuit could have considerable impacts on matters business practices conducted by the corporation in the UK and elsewhere.
Of course, this case adds further fuel to the fire already about how big Internet companies must change their behavior toward others, if nothing else because they happen to dominate with quite a few of their peers much of the digital infrastructure as well as revenue.
[Source Credit: Business Recorder]
