(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on Aug. 9)

The world's largest search engine firm Google suffered a stunning court defeat in an antitrust trial filed by the U.S. federal government. A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Google is a monopolistic company that engaged in unlawful practices to suppress competition in order to maintain its market dominance. "It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act," U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta wrote. The ruling is a landmark decision, heralding a major change in the platform industry. It will have a crucial impact on the tech giant's fate, with significant adverse implications on its oldest and most lucrative businesses. The trial began when the Department of Justice filed a legal suit against Google in 2020 claiming the firm had violated the antitrust law by controlling about 90 percent of the U.S. search market. "It is a huge victory for the American people that antitrust enforcement is alive and well when it comes to competition," said Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic U.S. senator, who heads the Senate's Judiciary Com mittee's antitrust subcommittee. The court judged Google had barred competitors and infringed upon a consumer's right to choice by exploiting its market-dominating status. It cited Google's provision of billions of dollars to other gigantic tech firms such as Apple in particular as illegal assistance to solidify its monopolistic position. It also criticized Google for consistently trying to increase online advertising fees by monopolizing the markets for cellular phones and web browsers. Over the past 20 years, Google has monopolized search engine markets in most countries except Korea and China, which are dominated by their own local providers. Once the current ruling is finally confirmed, it will result in a significant shift in the landscape of online advertising and search engine businesses. Specific punishments against Google will be determined in a future court ruling. In a worst-case scenario, Google will be forced to divest some of its business units including a possible breakup of its parent firm, Alphabet. Major platform companies like Google have taken flak for using their financial power to monopolize markets and unilaterally raise prices, which disrupts the market order. Against this backdrop, many countries have been introducing diverse measures to bring tech firms under control. For example, the European Union enacted the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which has been in effect since May 2023, to prevent the potential abuse of market dominance by large companies. Major platforms like Apple, Microsoft and Meta have been the primary targets of the legislation. The DMA is designed to prevent potential abuses by Big Tech firms in the market. If violations occur, the companies involved could face fines of up to 10 percent of their global revenue. Earlier, the EU Commission imposed a 1.84 billion euro penalty on Apple for abusing its dominance in the application market. In contrast to these global efforts, Korea has failed to take any feasible measures to address the expanding market influence of global Big Tech companies such as YouTube and Google. The nation introduced a bill against the abuse of power by Google for the first time in the world. However, the act has been ineffective over the past two years, with Google avoiding any regulatory action. This was mainly due to the inactivity of regulatory bodies such as the Korea Communications Commission, in particular. Due to the frequent changes in its chairperson, it has struggled to implement the law in practice. The government should step up efforts to prepare legal foundations to properly address the arbitrary and market-disturbing practices of Big Tech firms in line with global trends. Yet the authorities should refrain from seeking excessive regulations to prevent them from undermining any innovative efforts by these enterprises. Source: Yonhap News Agency