Lazar Radic and Geoff Manne on the Google Decision
ICLE President Geoffrey A. Manne and Senior Scholar Lazar Radic were both quoted by EurActiv in a story about the recent U.S. District Court order in the Google search antitrust case. You can read the full piece here.
The DMA has not been effective in notably reducing Google’s dominance, raising doubts as to whether it is a model to follow, Lazar Radic, Adjunct Professor of Law at IE University and Senior Scholar for Competition Policy at the International Center for Law & Economics, a think tank focused on legal and economic research, told Euractiv.
…Uncertainty around the remedies is furthered by the fact that the ruling did not clarify whether Google’s dominance stems from exclusive deals or a superior product, which means remedies might not alter user preference, said Geoffrey A. Manne, president and founder of the International Center for Law and Economics.
One option is to break Google up. Experts speaking to Euractiv said this is unlikely to happen. The judge focused on exclusive deals, which breaking up the company would not prevent, said Manne.
…This hints that possible remedies will be closer to the DMA-required choice screens. Other options include banning exclusivity deals like the one between Google and Apple, Manne told Euractiv.
But in the Google case, it may be difficult to make choice screens work. The judge can only impose obligations on Google, not on third parties like Apple or Mozilla, so they could keep Google search as the default, Manne and Cortez both said.
…“It is the opposite of a remedy,” said Manne.