With Google’s trial before the Senate now seemingly far behind us, the serious issues about the legality of its conduct under the antitrust laws remain to be debated. Professor Keith Hylton compares the current antitrust issues facing Google today with those that Microsoft dealt with in the mid-1990s.
According to recent news reports, Google claims that several antitrust complaints against it by rival firms are supported in some way by Microsoft. I see no reason to even try to determine the merits of these claims. Suppose, however, that the worst case scenario (from Google’s perspective) is true: that Microsoft is quietly supporting and instigating antitrust complaints against Google. What should we think about that?