Federal Trade Commission has been pursuing an antitrust investigation against Google rather hot-headedly. We recently reported that the commission was gearing up to launch a formal case against the search giant. However, it seems that there are ardent Google supporters in the U.S. Congress. A Congressman has sent a letter to FTC, warning it over its investigations against Google.
The letter has been written by a Democratic congressman, Rep. Jared Polis, and is addressed to FTC’s chairman. In his letter, Polis praises the contribution of Google in the U.S. economy and the number of services it offers to millions of users.
Polis wrote in his letter, “At a time when the national economy continues to stagnate, it’s not clear to me why the FTC should be focusing on a product that consumers seem very happy with, search engines. While Google is surely a big company and an important service in peoples’ lives, my constituents also use a variety of competing services.” To pursue antitrust action in this “hyper-competitive” environment, he argued, “defies all logic.”
Not only does Polis expressed acute disagreement with FTC’s point of view about Google, he also went on to castigate the commission and warn it that if it continues along that path, Congress will be forced to contain its powers.
He noted, “Application of anti-trust against Google would be a woefully misguided step that would threaten the integrity of our anti-trust system, and could ultimately lead to Congressional action resulting in a reduction in the ability of the FTC to enforce critical anti-trust protections.”
However, let’s not forget that in the past, Google has been questioned by a number of other Congressmen who are not very supportive of Google’s responses to the question of practices. Will this letter result in any change in FTC’s strategy in handling the Google question, remains to be seen.
Source: Jared Polis’s Letter
Courtesy: Arstechnica
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