(VitalNews.org) – The United States Justice Department has launched an antitrust attack on Google and Apple. The attacks are focused on Google’s dominant search and Apple’s iPhone and are reminiscent of Microsoft’s own lawsuit before skyrocketing, once again, to success.
Washington D.C. began the trial last year and regulators began investigating Google to see if their search engine had been an illegal monopoly. More recently, they began looking into the iPhone’s monopoly, though the case against Apple is more recent and requires more investigation.
However, this isn’t the first time that a technology company has been investigated. Microsoft experienced a similar investigation, which prompted a small halt to its business. Some experts speculate that if Microsoft had never gone through its legal issues, Apple and Google wouldn’t have grown so large.
The antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft began because of complaints from Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs back in 1998. He said Microsoft was using “dirty tactics” and urged regulators to force the company to “play fair.” Experts have said that this massive lawsuit paved the way for Google and Apple to take their spot in the technology industry.
The Justice Department in the lawsuit against Apple said, “The Microsoft case created new opportunities for innovation in areas that would become critical to the success of Apple’s consumer devices and the company itself.”
Rebecca Haw Allensworth, a Vanderbilt University law professor who focuses on antitrust laws, said, “It’s not about an agenda about trying to pursue and destroy companies, it’s about trying to restore competition in a market. What has happened with the Microsoft case is a success story that can also provide a blueprint for Apple and Google when people ask why is America trying to destroy its most successful companies. Microsoft has done great after it had a major antitrust claim against it.”
Experts have said that the success of companies like Google during Microsoft’s lawsuit proves that these technology companies can capitalize off of a monopoly, shutting out competition. The goal of these antitrust lawsuits is to reopen competition in the technology sector.
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