The Federal Trade Commission announced on Thursday that it had hired an outside litigator in the antitrust case likely to be brought against Google. The Feds have been looking into whether Google has been abusing its overwhelming market share in search to quash competition and to artificially inflate online advertising prices.
The new litigator is Beth A. Wilkinson, a Washington, DC-based attorney who served as special attorney to the United States Attorney General in the case of US v. McVeigh and Nichols, the two men accused and convicted in the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995. She delivered the closing arguments in the case, which resulted in a death sentence for McVeigh, and earned her a second award for service from the Department of Justice.
The New York Times notes that the FTC has only hired outside litigators twice in the last decade, suggesting that there will likely be a case brought against Google.
"It’s a watershed moment when you hire someone like this," said David Wales, a former Federal Trade Commission official now in private practice with Jones Day, in an interview with the Times. "This shows Google that if it doesn’t give you the remedy you want, you’re going to litigate."
However, FTC officials have been quick to stress that no decision has been made with respect to potential charges against Google.
UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal notes that in Google's most recently quarterly regulatory filing, that the company is apparently now also under investigation for "certain business practices" in Argentina and South Korea.
reader comments
28