... and what are the potential consequences for google? I slap on the wrist and a fine that is 0.01% of the amount of profit they made from all this?
Treble damages of undue profit paid out as taxes to states over 20 years.
Forced commoditization of marketing data for sale to any other advertiser.
Separation of Chrome, AdWords, Search into different companies.
There’s lots of potential remedies that are really bad for Google as it stands today.
Best case is probably like Microsoft’s where they spend tons of money and time, there founders leave, and they stop doing the things in the complaint.
Honestly, a broken up Google is worth more than a unified one. Cynically this may be a ploy just to unleash the value that google has pent up.
They might not engage in as much harmful behavior if they actually wound up losing money by it rather than making money, and if it cost them time in jail.
"The point of anti-trust isn’t to punish individuals but to remedy harm to the consumer."
Which is evidence that the current antitrust laws are too lax.
Also, I'm not sure how harm to the consumers is supposed to be remedied if the consumers will ultimately be the ones paying the fees that these companies are charged for breaking the law.
If google has to stop colluding to increase ad prices that’s a structural change that will change their profit margin, there’s no way to pass that cost on the consumer.
Anti trust is one of the few places where that cost doesn’t get passed on to consumers since the whole point is to make it so they can no longer just raise prices.
If you want to see how this worked look at the breakup of Standard Oil or Ma Bell, those both had massive benefits for consumers and consumers ultimately saved tons of money.
Anyone who cares about moral hazard?
If anyone should be blamed, it's the people who were supposed to regulate these companies to stop them from getting to this point, especially since their evil practices have been known for a very long time.
The world has missed out on 10 years of potential competition and innovation because of that.
So they should face the consequences.
I just don't think the consequences fit the crime. It's just a slap on the wrist, and these people will just continue screwing the rest of us over because there are no personal consequences for them.
Any fines that Google and Facebook pay will just be extracted from the consumer. Breaking up the companies won't actually keep them from doing the same in the future, nor will it actually penalize anyone who was involved.
So, yeah, I do think jail time and asset forfeiture from those responsible (if they are guilty) is fair and just.
Sure, it's a consequence of (unrestrained) capitalism, but it's not a requirement for capitalism. One can send people to jail for financial crimes, like monopolies, and still have capitalism.
> it's the people who were supposed to regulate these companies to stop them from getting to this point
Well that would be the politicians (and their weakening of regulation). Which is kind of out of the scope of "ideally X", because any such change would by necessity require changing politicians.
Also they are, in a (poor) way, being regulated by this suit. Being caught for a crime and regulation are sorta two different things though. Sort of like health care, regulation is preventative, often healthier and cheaper in the long run. Prosecution is emergency care, an expensive last resort.
> The world has missed out on 10 years of potential competition and innovation because of that.
Or, you know, the actions google took to exploit the capitalist system. If anything this is just a demonstration of the need for more socialist economic solutions.
I'd rather see the data deleted. Let them start over and this time their data collection practices should be regulated.
This would be horrible for consumer privacy.
Can simply make a separate company that holds the data and offers using it as a service to other companies, of which Google is one.
Nothing will fundamentally change for the consumer, only who gets paid.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System#Evo...
[1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/09/att-breakup-spin...