Google’s enemies line up to fire in antitrust probe – The Wall Street Journal

Being number one is a good way to make enemies, as Google seems poised to learn. The company is the target of a growing number of competition probes. Governments from the US to Europe are looking at how Google uses its dominant market position to stifle rivals and maintain its enormous margins. The probes in the European Union are barrelling ahead – Google has been paying big fines for its bad behaviour on Android and elsewhere. But it's the threat of a US investigation that really poses a danger to Google's dominance. It's encouraging to see America finally get around to investigating the market structure in the tech business. It seems clear that the enormous network effects that tech giants like Facebook and Google enjoy contain the seeds of serious market issues. One of the most important things that governments can for the economy do is to keep markets competitive. It's enormously tempting to simply let national giants steamroll on and to capitalise on their juicy margins with higher taxes. But as the long economic history of the US has shown, that way lies stagnation. It's actually much better, in the long-term, for a government to force national giants to become smaller, leaner, and tougher. This encourages innovation, grows productivity, and ultimately helps build a more diverse, resilient economy. It's an important lesson for all governments, especially in a market so subject to oligopoly as SA. – Felicity Duncan

Google's Enemies Gear Up to Make Antitrust Case

By Ryan Tracy in Washington and Valentina Pop in Brussels

As U.S. officials prepare an antitrust probe of Alphabet Inc.'s Google and possibly other Silicon Valley giants, a loose-knit crew of its rivals is gearing up to help.

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