Google Responding to a Federal Antitrust Lawsuit by the Doj and 11 Republican State Attorneys General Accusing the Silicon Valley Heavyweight of Maintaining a Monopoly.

People use Google because they choose to — not because they’re forced to or because they can’t find alternatives.

• LATEST: The lawsuit accuses Google of abusing its dominance and violating federal competition laws in order to preserve its monopoly over internet searches and online advertising. The complaint states:

“General search engine competitors are denied vital distribution, scale and product recognition – ensuring they have no real chance to challenge Google. Google is so dominant that ‘Google’ is not only a noun to identify the company and the Google search engine but also a verb that means to search the internet.”

• BACKGROUND: For many years, Google was under investigation by the Federal Trade Commission regarding potential antitrust violations, but that inquiry ended in 2013 when Google agreed to change some of its business practices – without facing any penalties.
• BIG PICTURE: The lawsuit comes as Google’s CEO, as well as those from Facebook and Twitter, prepare to testify before a Senate committee on October 28 about various issues, including competition, misinformation, privacy, and censorship.