Tech industry cites economic downturn in antitrust defense
As regulators ramp up efforts to break up Google, the tech giant and industry trade groups are deploying a new line of defense: highlighting the economic downturn.
The Justice Department and eight state attorneys general on Tuesday brought an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Google monopolized the digital ads market, as my colleagues reported.
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One prominent anti-monopoly group pushed back on the argument.
Katie Van Dyck, senior legal counsel at the American Economic Liberties Project advocacy group, said the Chamber of Progress’s argument was “not based in reality.”
“Bloated and concentrated industry is what hurts employees, dampens wages and stunts innovation,” she told me. “That alone is reason to amp up enforcement, not weaken it.”
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