"Absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anticompetitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling innovation," the lawsuit states. The government said Google has nearly 90% of all general search engine queries in the United States and almost 95% of searches on mobile. "The end result is that no one can feasibly challenge Google's dominance in search and search advertising," Barr said. "Ultimately it is consumers and advertisers that suffer from less choice, less innovation and less competitive advertising prices," the lawsuit states. "General search services, search advertising, and general search text advertising require complex algorithms that are constantly learning which organic results and ads best respond to user queries," the government said in its complaint.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 21, 2020 01:07 UTC