Google Deal Said to Bring U.S. Scrutiny

GOOGLE DEAL SAID TO BRING US SCRUTINY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Steve Lohr]
The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick. The inquiry began at the end of last week, after it was decided that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review. Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, said that decisions made now about the structure of the online advertising industry could have lasting effects on data collection and personal privacy on the Internet, especially if control rests with a “few powerful gatekeepers” led by Google. Still, privacy issues are not typically the concern of antitrust officials. In reviewing a proposed merger, legal experts say, regulators weigh the likely impact on competition and struggle with tricky technical matters like defining the relevant market to measure. “To the extent that a reduction in competition could make it more difficult to protect privacy, it could be a consideration,” said Andrew I. Gavil, a law professor at Howard University. “But it would have to be linked to competition. Strictly speaking, privacy is not an antitrust issue.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/technology/29antitrust.html
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