Hill Weighs In On Google Settlement

Members of the 113th Congress, which held its first session Jan 3, weighed in on the Federal Trade Commission's Google decision, but with signals from at least one congressman that would not be the end of the story.

Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), a pair of House members representing high-tech constituents in Northern California including Google, praised the FTC's conclusion that Google's search algorithms were primarily meant to improve the customer experience and not favor its content for anticompetitive purposes. The FTC also required Google to make essential patents it acquired from Motorola available to competitors on reasonable terms. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was less effusive. He is ranking member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee. "Along with the FTC, our Subcommittee will seek to make certain that Google abides by these commonsense commitments. Although these voluntary actions represent an important step in the right direction, today's agreement does not address all the concerns about anticompetitive conduct raised at our Subcommittee hearing. We will continue to work with antitrust authorities to help ensure robust competition in the Internet search arena so that consumer welfare is maximized."