Google will probably agree to a settlement with the FTC, Paul Gallant, a...
Google will probably agree to a settlement with the FTC, Paul Gallant, a telecom policy analyst with Guggenheim Partners, wrote investors Monday. He cited news reports that an “informal settlement,” rather than an antitrust lawsuit, is imminent. A suit is…
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unlikely “because U.S. antitrust law makes this a very difficult case for the FTC to win and because of Google’s relationship with the Obama Administration,” Gallant said. The Department of Justice is unlikely to bring an antitrust suit against Google, he said. Instead, Gallant wrote, the FTC settlement will likely be informal and focus on “the key issue of Google’s power in search” in addition to “a formal consent decree requiring Google to license certain wireless patents to competitors on reasonable terms.” Despite “tougher antitrust law in Europe and Google’s lack of political support relative to here in the U.S.,” Gallant wrote, a formal consent decree is more likely than a suit from the European Commission. The EC decree will likely include “some modifications to its search business as well as other matters affecting search ad portability and Google ’scraping’ reviews and content from other websites,” he said.