Google wins antitrust case against Ohio firm

ADVERTISING BROKER Google has won an antitrust lawsuit over claims that the firm favours its own web properties over those of rivals when returning search results.

Google is facing a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) probe over whether it abused its position as the dominant web search outfit to drive traffic to its own web properties and services over others.

An Ohio based price comparison website, mytriggers.com leveled similar accusations at Google, alleging that the firm made unfair agreements with other websites to exert control over search advertising.

The Ohio attorney general got involved, claiming the web site's antitrust claims against Google were not precluded by federal law. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Bessey ruled that the Ohio attorney general was right and that the Federal Communications Decency Act did not prohibit antitrust claims against Google under Ohio state law.

Effectively Judge Bessey's ruling opens up the possibility for companies to bring state antitrust lawsuits against Google rather than falling under the umbrella of the FTC's actions. While that might seem like a body blow to Google, what followed effectively nullified any advantage it gave the price comparison web site.

Judge Bessey ruled that mytriggers.com had only identified itself as being affected by Google's alleged actions. The law requires it to show that competition in general suffered due to Google's alleged actions, the judge said, and thus he handed Google a victory that will give the advertising giant hope.

It is hard for companies to show widespread damage done by a single firm simply because that would require the sharing of confidential information among rivals. It's a Catch-22 situation that might prevent private firms from winning antitrust claims against Google. µ