?Google should be required to divest Motorola Mobility, whose standards essential
patents it is using unfairly by not making them available for license on a fair basis.
? Google should be broken into different companies devoted to different lines of
business so there is no incentive to unfairly use search to promote other services.
Search could be separated from advertising. Gmail and the relatively new social
networking service, Google +, could be spun off as a separate entity, as could
YouTube, a Google acquisition that should have been denied at the time of merger.
Enterprise applications could be another separate business.
? Google?s search services should be separated from services where Google provides
its own content.
? Google?s search engine?s importance as a gateway to Internet requires a maximum
degree of openness and transparency. Google?s monopoly position and importance to
the Internet means that the company should be closely regulated like a public utility.
Regulations should be designed to open up Google?s ad platform to enable other
competitors to compete. Rules should be crafted to create greater transparency in the
operation of Google?s ad platform to enable parties to negotiate more effectively. For
example: Providing greater visibility into the maximum amount of the highest bid,
how many search terms are shown per page, and how Google?s ?quality score? is
derived and applied. Little, if any, of this information is currently public and
openness would contribute to consumer choice and options as well as foster
competition.
? Google should be forced to disgorge its monopolistic gains through the imposition of
substantial financial penalties. Your change in policy regarding disgorgement over
the summer was a welcome step and we urge you to apply it in this case. The
payment would have to be significant enough to impact Google?s future behavior.
Google hardly blinked when it paid half a billion dollars to the United States to settle
an illegal drug sales case. The proposed $22.5 million fine for violating the ?Buzz?
Consent Decree is but pocket change for the Internet giant. Perhaps the amount
disgorged could be tied to paying back consumers for monetizing their private
information and content without asking them permission or compensating them.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram