Congressman Urges FTC to Drop Antitrust Campaign Against Google

Congressman Jared Polis has published an open letter to the FTC urging them to drop their antitrust investigation of Google or face congressional action to reduce their power.

Speaking from experience as a high-tech entrepreneur, Polis says:


"Today's giant can be tomorrow's failure without any government intervention; market forces drive obsolescence at a break neck pace which should only further abrogate the need for government intervention. I believe that application of anti-trust against Gogole would be a woefully misguided step that would threaten the very 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 in industries where markets are being distorted by monopolies or oligopolies."

The New York Times reports that FTC's escalating pursuit of Google is the most far-reaching antitrust investigation of a corporation since the landmark federal case against Microsoft in the late 1990s. The agency's central focus is whether Google manipulates search results to favor its own products, and makes it harder for competitors and their products to appear prominently on a results page.

A draft memo more than 100 pages is being finalized and will soon be shared with five F.T.C. commissioners.

You can read the full letter from the congressman here. Let us know in the comments if you feel that Google is abusing its position in a way that warrants investigation.


[via Verge]