Google will face an antitrust case sooner than later if the US Justice Department would have its way. The New York Times reported that the Justice Department is set to meet an "arbitrary" deadline and plans to file the federal government's antitrust complaint against the search engine company this month. Industry analysts say it appears that federal authorities are rushing the case, an action that smacks more of a political, rather than legal, move.
Attorney General William Barr junked the request for more time of career lawyers who were working on the case, hinting that the federal government will file the antitrust complaint against Google before or by the end of September. According to reports, around 40 lawyers are helping with the investigation, and this summer, they wrote the Justice Department that for them to assemble a strong antitrust case against the search engine company, they need to have more time.
In response to the junking of their request, some of the lawyers working on the antitrust case against Google left the group, while others say they will not affix their signatures to the eventual complaint against the search engine company. There were also rumors of disagreements persisting within the legal team over how broad the complaint against Google should be and what the tech company could do to fix the problems that the government discovered. Many of the lawyers in the government's legal team see the deadline as arbitrary.
The DOJ is investigating whether the search function and advertising businesses of Google violated antitrust law. At the moment, however, it is not clear whether the government will set their sights on only on the search or advertising aspect of the search engine company, or on both. In imposing the deadline to file the antitrust case, some of the lawyers opined that the Attorney General is forcing them to come up with weak cases just so the DOJ could announce an antitrust complaint by September 30.
Many analysts perceive that the administration is attempting to score a political win in filing the antitrust case against Google before the elections in November. However, Barr said that the move is not political and that he thinks the government's legal team is moving very slowly in assembling the case against the search engine company. He also said that the DOJ's antitrust division has been "asleep at the switch for decades."
The split among the government's legal team is also evident among state attorneys general. In the case of Democratic AGs, they also expressed similar concerns about the apparent rushing of the antitrust case against Google. Republican AGs, on the other hand, allege that their Democratic counterparts only wanted the case against the search engine company filed under a "potential Biden administration." If this happens, it will limit the number of states that can join the Justice Department's complaint.
