Antitrust Investigation

A European Commission Antitrust probe into Google might result in the search giant having to make changes to its Android platform. According to certain sources, Google had abused its dominant position in online search. The costs associated with the antitrust behavior are surprisingly minimal. In fact, there was no mention of any mention of the costs that are associated with this antitrust behavior. Likewise, there was also no mention of a name for the type of antitrust act that was done here. After the full-scale investigation was brought up, Google was commanded to change the way it displays its search results and alter the agreements it has with its advertisers. Monopolies and oligopolies are not always bad for society. It really depends on how these different firms conduct their business. If they are going to intentionally produce only a few products and not let any other firm sell it, then yes, they would be bad for society. If it is the other way around, then it is a whole different story. An auto industry would be an example of a oligopoly. They mainly produce automobiles and sell them out to their distributors. These distributors however will be the only ones to sell them commercially. No other firm out there can sell them directly from the manufacturer. This would be an example of how these market types would be bad for society. On the other hand, an example of how these market types might be good for society would be the fact that if society purchases these automobiles from those distributors, they will be getting a better product than if they were sold locally. One other example of how these market types would be good for society would be the petroleum industry. If petroleum was sold individually and not by these market types, no one would know where the petroleum came from or what quality it is in.

Albanesuis, Chloe. (2012). Report: EU Antitrust Deal Might Force Changes to Android. PC Magazine, volume 1(issue 1). Retrieved from