Behind the FTC’s Unsurprising Decision Not to Sue Google

[Commentary] The release of an internal Federal Trade Commission staff recommendation memo regarding its investigation of Google has led some to question the agency’s decision not to file a lawsuit against the company for allegedly violating antitrust laws. In the eyes of some Google competitors, the memo provides ammunition to the European Commission to bring its own legal action against Google. That thinking is misguided and misconstrues the FTC’s decision-making process.

Although some are suggesting that the memo shows convincingly that the agency should have taken legal action against Google for its search and advertising practices, the document represents only one part of a 19-month investigation. Critics of the FTC ignore all the other internal economic and legal analyses, evidence from complainants, as well as millions of pages of documents, and hours upon hours of testimony.

Google faces competition on all fronts, from specialized search engines to social networks to other general search engines. Many of these companies are thriving in competition with Google, despite their continued complaints. That should be evidence enough that the FTC was correct not to sue Google.

[Miller was chairman of the Federal Trade Commission from October 1981 to October 1985. Oliver was the FTC chairman from April 1986 to August 1989.]