If Bidenomics has wreaked havoc on your family finances like it has mine, buckle up, because this ride may get even more turbulent for all our bank accounts. The Biden Administration has recently moved forward with legal action against two major, trusted American companies: Google and Amazon. If the Biden Administration’s DOJ and FTC are successful in their fights against these market giants, Google and Amazon aren’t the real losers—the real loser is us, the American consumers.
In 2020, the Biden Administration’s DOJ filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. The lawsuit contends that Google has engaged in anticompetitive practices which have resulted in harm to all Americans. The facts simply do not support this argument. While Google certainly is the most-utilized search engine of consumers, it is the result of consumer choice, not illegal activity by Google.
When Google entered the market, there already was a giant in the search engine sphere: now Microsoft-owned Yahoo!. Google became the preferred search engine because they developed a product that most consumers believed was superior. Today, consumers have even more choices for search engines like DuckDuckGo, Yahoo!, Bing, You.com and dozens more. Further, 82 percent of Americans prefer to begin their searches on social media websites, not on a search engine.
The second government charge relates to Google’s proprietary advertising software. Google’s Ad360 program allows for everything from businesses to candidates for elected office to better reach their targeted audiences. Largely thanks to advanced software development in this area, digital advertising costs have fallen by 40 percent since 2010. While Google invested in audience-centered programs, competitors like Microsoft’s Bing did not. Imagine being a student who completed an “A” quality project, and the teacher gives the same credit for your work, regardless of whether they completed a project, to every student. The Biden DOJ, if successful, will only stifle future innovation across all sectors by removing the incentive to improve software products. In the end, American consumers suffer.
In continuing the Biden Administration’s attack on consumers, in late September, the Biden FTC filed a lawsuit against Amazon. In the lawsuit, the FTC alleges that Amazon has created a monopoly of power by driving competition from the marketplace. While Amazon is the largest online retailer, competition is fierce from other marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, Walmart, and Target, amongst others.
Amazon grew to prominence because they focused on developing an online marketplace that provides the convenience that consumers want and connecting retailers to a global audience to sell their goods. Like Google, Amazon became a preferred, trusted company by providing consumers an affordable service they choose to utilize. Further, the competition between niche products allows consumers to compare similar products and weigh the cost and quality in making their purchasing decision, creating the best possible environment for consumers by enhancing competition between companies selling similar products.
If the FTC is successful in their suit against Amazon, the results are only negative for consumers. Whether it is reducing their workforce, placing greater limitations on the frequency of deliveries to rural areas, or charging consumers more for their Amazon subscriptions, the result of government interference with the free market will be higher prices and lower-quality services.
These lawsuits will accomplish nothing more than harm to American consumers. Google and Amazon have only done what every American innovator hopes to achieve — develop products that consumers love and trust. Punishing any company for growth is punishing all of us consumers for preferring their products. The cost of victory for the Biden Administration’s lawsuits against Google and Amazon won’t fall on the companies; it’ll fall on us.
