What Google's rivals want after DOJ's antitrust trial win

Old Google rivals like Yelp and DuckDuckGo got a big win Monday, when a federal judge ruled that Google is an illegal monopoly. But their statements on the decision showed restraint. That's because the work of restoring competition has just begun, and the judge has yet to decide what that work will involve. With so many options, Google's competitors are pushing for changes they think will help their businesses, which may be harder than it sounds.

"While we are pleased with the decision, a stronger remedy is much needed," Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman wrote in a blog post after the ruling, referring to the new trial phase that begins in September.

"We've passed an important milestone, but there's still a lot of history to be written," DuckDuckGo senior vice president of public affairs Kamil Bazbaz said in a statement. "Google will do anything to obstruct the path of progress, which is why we expect a strong remedies trial that can really dig into all the details, propose a series of remedies that will actually work, and establish an oversight body to administer them." These statements reflect an understanding that Judge Amit Mehta's decision on how to restore competition will be as important — if not more so — as his conclusion that Google violated antitrust law. The recently concluded liability phase determined that Google violated the Sherman Act through exclusionary contracts with phone and browser makers to maintain its default search engine status. In the remedies phase, Mehta will decide how to restore competition in general search services and search text advertising. But a weak remedy would easily push Google over the edge. DuckDuckGo knows better than most how important effective remedies are. Google was deemed a monopolist in the EU years ago, and the region imposed a choice screen asking device users to choose their default search engine in an attempt to create competition. But this approach has not had as much impact as competitors once hoped — and Google still overwhelmingly dominates. "We cannot stress this enough: implementation details matter," BuzzBuzz said. In the EU, "there are some solutions that are promising, but Google has found it relatively easy to work around their implementation." DuckDuckGo has called for a group of "truly independent" technical experts to monitor any measures imposed by the court, "to ensure that Google does not find new ways to give itself preferential treatment." DuckDuckGo said some of Europe's solutions could be effective, if they are implemented better. For example, a choice screen could pop up "periodically" rather than appearing only once during initial setup. In contrast, the company wants to ban "dark pattern" pop-ups that push people back to the default, something that doesn't apply in the EU. DuckDuckGo has also proposed that the court prevent Google from buying default status or preinstallation (which could thwart its multibillion-dollar deal with Apple) and give it access to its search and advertising APIs. Yelp's Stoppelman says Google should "eliminate services that have unfairly benefited from its search monopoly, which is a straightforward and enforceable remedy to prevent anti-competitive behavior in the future." The judge should also prevent Google from using exclusive default search deals and "prioritizing its own content in search results," Stoppelman said. Other advocates for enforcement against Google, including groups representing publishers who advertise on the service or rely on search for traffic, also have suggestions. On a call with reporters organized by the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint said forcing Google to separate its Chrome and Android businesses could be a useful solution. That's because, Kint says, data from the browser and mobile operating system can be used to expand the scale of search queries and make that product even more robust. "The underlying data that connects all of these is a critical asset that needs to be reined in," he says. AELP senior legal counsel Lee Hepner says separating the businesses would "open up competition for alternative search competitors on Chrome or Android."