SIIA Statement Regarding DOJ Remedy Recommendation for U.S. v Google

The following statement from the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) in response to yesterday’s Bloomberg report yesterday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to ask for radical remedies in U.S. v. Google can be attributed to SIIA President Chris Mohr. This entire case has been premised on a disturbing and unsupported premise: a company that has achieved success through superior innovation can nonetheless be held liable under the antitrust laws for reasons beyond consumer welfare.  As a result, the extreme remedies recommended by the Department of Justice benefit no one other than Google’s business competitors while harming both the consumers who really like Google services and the developers who benefit from the current ecosystem. By abandoning the consumer welfare standard, the DOJ has entered the business of picking winners and losers – to the detriment of American consumers. We hope that clearer minds prevail.