The Justice Department unveiled an antitrust lawsuit against Google for abusing its dominance in online search and search advertising. While this is good news to small businesses and the average American, it spelled bad news for the Pelosi’s as they dumped their shares in Google just weeks before The Justice Department unveiled an antitrust lawsuit against Google.
The lawsuit is the most aggressive action taken by the Justice Department in decades and could result in significant changes to how Google does business. If successful, it could lead to more competition online and lower prices for consumers. It is also a major step forward in protecting competition in the digital age and ensuring that companies are not using their market power to harm competitors or limit consumer choice.
The suit will focus on three areas; illegally maintaining a monopoly in general search services through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices, unlawfully protecting its monopoly power by entering into exclusivity agreements to prevent rivals from competing effectively with Google, and using its market power to harm competitors.
The Department of Justice will be seeking a permanent injunction to stop Google from continuing these practices and seeking relief that restores competition in the affected markets. The case is expected to go to trial next year.
This is an important step in maintaining fair competition and protecting American consumers from the abuse of market power by large tech companies. It is also a signal to other tech companies that the Department of Justice will take action against anticompetitive behavior. The outcome of this case has the potential to shape how large tech firms operate in the future, as earlier this month, 78 members of Congress violated a law designed to prevent insider trading and stop conflicts of interest.
The situation where 78 Representatives were found to be insider trading was a serious violation of public trust, and managed to turn rumors and coincidences about U.S. Representatives committing insider trading into a reality. As a result of the speculation about Representatives’ tendencies to utilize the stock market, the Pelosi family has been an ongoing joke for years about how they’re somehow among the best stock traders on the planet.
According to The Daily Wire:
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sold a combined 30,000 shares of stock in Google’s parent company, Alphabet, roughly one month before the Justice Department opened an antitrust lawsuit into the technology firm.
Federal regulators claimed in the Tuesday complaint that Google monopolizes the tools website publishers use to sell advertisements and that companies utilize to purchase advertisements. Pelosi, who resigned from her leadership position but remains a member of Congress, sold 10,000 shares of Alphabet Class A stock on December 20, December 21, and December 28, according to federal disclosures, marking a combined transaction value between $1.5 million and $3 million. The disclosures were digitally signed by the lawmaker on January 12.
Officials claimed that Google has engaged in a “pattern of acquisitions to obtain control over key digital advertising tools” and has manipulated auctions to “deprive rivals of scale.” Such moves may violate the Sherman Act, which outlaws “monopolization, attempted monopolization, or conspiracy or combination to monopolize” deemed unreasonable by the court system. Google said in a statement that the Justice Department lawsuit attempts to “pick winners and losers” in the “highly competitive” advertising technology space.
While the lawsuit is interesting enough, as the DOJ will be expanding its enforcement efforts against companies that engage in anticompetitive behavior, potentially meaning more scrutiny and tighter regulations for companies that have become too powerful and impede competition. Pelosi’s apparent knowledge of the situation and ability to preserve her assets in Google stock before a market crash shows that she’s still in all likelihood insider trading, as she’s managed to build a family wealth of over $114 million, despite only being paid a salary of under $200,000.
