Thu October, 2020, Age: 3 years
China is preparing to launch an antitrust investigation into Google, based on allegations that it has leveraged the dominance of its Android mobile operating system to stifle competition. The case was proposed by Huawei last year and has been submitted to the State Council’s antitrust committee for review. The timing of the antitrust probe, which comes as the U.S. has cited national security risks to pass a number of measures aimed at hobbling Chinese tech companies (including Huawei, TikTok, and most recently SMIC), raises concerns that this may be a political move. At the same time, China has embarked on a major campaign to revive its antitrust laws over the past few years. The decision also comes just after the U.S. government announced an unrelated antitrust suit against Google, which could be filed as early as next week. The DoJ accuses Google of disadvantaging rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing by denying them data about users and user preferences.
