Objectives of Antitrust Laws

The primary object of antitrust law is to ensure a competitive economy to provides a product or a service to the consumer at the lowest possible price, and the consumer has a real choice among a diversity of products. Anti-competitive policies are prevalent in the manufacturing and service sectors. Big Tech (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple) has become the eye of the storm when disrupting the efficiency of market competition. The House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust submitted a report to the US Congress that listed down the various anti-competitive practices of Big Tech companies. The major allegations against the companies were that they had an unfair advantage over nominal competitors in terms of possession of data. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Big Tech firms for violating competition laws. 

The verdict of the lawsuit filed against Google came out in August 2024. Justice Mehta of the Columbia District Court ruled that Google has a monopoly in two relevant product markets: general search services and general search text advertising. Entering into illicit deals with equipment manufacturers like Samsung and Verizon, which made Google the default web browser on their devices. Google was found to have no real competitor; its queries on general search engines increased from 80% in 2009 to 90% in 2020. Google’s practices were deemed to be anti-competitive on three grounds: 

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