A remarkable leak to Politico of agency documents about the 2012 Google investigation reveals that, despite ample evidence of market distortions and threats to competition presented by the agency's lawyers, the five commissioners of the FTC deferred instead to speculative claims by their economists.
William Kovacic, a former FTC chair under President George W. Bush, reviewed the more than 3,00 pages of documents leaked to Politico and concluded the agency overlooked "What many experts and regulators would consider clear antitrust violations," calling the specificity of issues outlined "Breathtaking." In short, where we find ourselves today - with Google as the primary filter of the world's information, engaging in a network of exclusionary contracts and anti-competitive conduct, and subject to an antitrust lawsuit led by the Department of Justice and joined by 48 state attorneys general - could have, and should have, been avoided.
The Economists Were Wrong Perhaps the most stunning takeaway in the 2012 documents is the extent to which the recommendations of the FTC's lawyers sharply differed from those of the agency's economists, on whose judgment the FTC commissioners ultimately relied in their decision to drop the investigation into Google.
The economists claimed, for example, that Google only represented 10 to 20 percent of the referral traffic to retail sites - disregarding statements from Google itself that those numbers were unreliable, as well as evidence from staff attorneys that Google's referral traffic to retail provided closer to 70-90 percent.
A pair of FTC economists made what Politico deemed "Questionable assertions" about Google's dominance of the advertising markets, citing as their evidence a study by Google and two academic papers funded by grants from Google.
In the case of Google, for example, one top executive bragged in an email that Google could "Own the U.S. market" with its exclusive contracts with major phone makers and carriers.
When the Wall Street Journal published a partial leak of the FTC's Google investigation documents in 2015 demonstrating the depth of disagreement between the agency's staff and the final commission vote, Shelton emailed the agency's chief of staff to state Google was "Troubled" and "Puzzled" by the FTC's non-response.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction, and unfortunately the media has a strong bias. They spin stories to make conservatives look bad and will go to great lengths to avoid reporting on the good that comes from conservative policies. There are a few shining lights in the media landscape-brave conservative outlets that report the truth and offer a different perspective. We must support conservative outlets like this one and ensure that our voices are heard.
Monday, March 22, 2021
Leaked Docs Show Obama FTC Gave Google Its Monopoly After Google Execs Helped Obama Get Re-Elected
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