The antitrust redoubles efforts towards Apple | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON has seen, for a number of weeks, to parade the tech giants earlier than the federal judges, on the initiative of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). After Meta – his trial began on Monday April 14, 2025 on Monday, April 14, 2025 -, it’s Google’s flip, discovered responsible in August 2024, to return and defend his pursuits within the face of the magistrates. The coronary heart of the trial lies within the potential Google amputation of its Chrome software program, the worth of which is estimated between $ 15 and $ 20 billion, based on a Bloomberg research. The Mountain View firm hopes to not get there.

For Meta, the FTC says that it ought to by no means have acquired Instagram in 2012 for $ 1 billion and WhatsApp in 2014 for $ 19 billion. The company now requests that these subsidiaries be indifferent from the Californian dad or mum firm.

As for Google, the agency is accused of getting abused its dominant place on the web search software market to consolidate its monopoly. The firm is criticized for having conquered virtually 90 % of the American market whereas hampering its opponents (DuckDuckGo and Bing of Microsoft being the primary on this section).

It would have spent as much as 26 billion {dollars} a yr, based on estimates, to conclude agreements to make Google the default search engine on Firefox, Safari or Android units. This allowed him to gather extra person knowledge than his rivals, and thus excellent his product.

“If we dismantle, there will be performance losses”

For Frédéric Marty, analysis supervisor on the CNRS and former member of the College of Competition Authority, the dismantling of Google – in economics, we converse of “structural remedies” – might have dangerous penalties on customers and the competitiveness of the American financial system.

“Inevitably, if we dismantle, there will be loss of performance,” recollects the economist, who specifies that “the dismantling [est] First of all a deterrent weapon ”. In all cases, the giant of Silicon Valley can appeal the court decision, making the nature of the conviction even more uncertain. Google has already been found guilty of anti -competitive practices by the federal judge Amit Mehta. For the American giant, this transition to court extends over three weeks, but the date of rendering of the verdict is not yet known. According to Frédéric Marty, this trial will take time: “But by what we arrive on the finish of the case, a variety of time will spend. Because it is a sport that shall be very lengthy. »»

In addition, the usage of structural cures stays uncommon. In the Nineties, Microsoft noticed this menace hovering over its head, too for anti-competitive practices. Finally, the corporate appealed, and justice opted for therefore -called behavioral cures, consisting in constraining the agency to change its habits in the marketplace. Before that, the final firm to have been dismantled within the United States for related details was AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) within the early Nineteen Eighties.

The shopper is on the heart of the protection of the American agency. For Google, its dismantling “would prejudice American consumers”, within the phrases of Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice-president accountable for regulatory instances, in a weblog observe printed in December 2024. In this similar observe, it affirms that the monopoly of the Californian big is justified by the selection of customers: “People do not use Google because they are forced to Because they want it. »»

A case that has run since 2020

Frédéric Marty, he points to a contradiction between this argument and the contract passed with Apple, which ensures Google its default place on Safari: “If I’m the very best, the Apple person will obtain Google Search himself. So paying the issue. “The former member of the College of the Competition Authority goes even further:” The choose tends to welcome these arguments with circumspection. The firm tends to consider in its arguments. The hole is usually this notion hole. »»

To uncover



The kangaroo of the day

Answer

The present case started in 2020, below the primary Trump administration, and continued below the mandate of Joe Biden, particularly via the motion of Jonathan Kanter, deputy prosecutor accountable for the antitrust division of the United States Ministry of Justice. Today, the file is carried by Gail Slater, appointed by Trump in December 2024. This lawyer, former FTC and ex-advisor of JD Vance in issues of financial policy-himself a supporter of a google dismantling in 2024-, embodies the continuity of the exhausting line. Frédéric Marty is evident: “It seems like there’s a relative continuity of the American administration. »»

Read too Press publishers and European journalists ring the alarm towards a Google checkHowever, a number of American tech bosses had been seen in the course of the Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony on January 20. Thierry Pénard, economist at CNRS and specialist in competitors legislation, places the independence of establishments just like the FTC or the DOJ (Department of Justice, the equal of the Ministry of Justice in France): “They are impartial, however stay influenced by the administration in place. Perhaps an try, for these bosses, to line up behind political energy. A visibly useless try – however solely the long run will inform us.