WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday, accusing the $1 trillion company of illegally using its market power to fend off rivals and said nothing was off the table, including a breakup of the internet search and advertising company.
The lawsuit, which was joined by 11 states, marks the biggest antitrust case in a generation, comparable to the lawsuit against Microsoft Corp filed in 1998 and the 1974 case against AT&T which led to the breakup of the Bell System.
The lawsuit claims that Google acted unlawfully to maintain its position in search and search advertising on the internet, and says that “absent a court order, Google will continue executing its anti-competitive strategy, crippling the competitive process, reducing consumer choice, and stifling innovation.”
The complaint says that Google has nearly 90% of all general search engine queries in the United States and almost 95% of searches on mobile.
