The Justice Department’s “Antitrust Division Manual” allows a case to be developed through a grand jury if there is evidence showing anticompetitive behavior by a company. Information gathered through a civil inquiry that they sought to destroy competition to gain a monopoly could become the basis for opening a criminal investigation. But in internet searches, Google could well be considered to have something close to monopoly power, especially when its very name has become a verb for searching for information. A second avenue the Justice Department could pursue is under Section 2 of the Sherman Act, which prohibits an “attempt to monopolize” trade or commerce. This could be a more amenable path to establishing an antitrust violation because it does not require proving that there is an actual monopoly, only that steps were taken to acquire monopoly power.
Source: New York Times June 17, 2019 19:07 UTC