Lawmakers Urge More Scrutiny For Google

Two United States senators have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look closely at Google's business practices and its impact on competition in the areas of Internet search and commerce.

Sens. Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Mike Lee (R-UT) signaled the bipartisan nature of the concern about the Internet giant. Kohl is the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee and Lee is the ranking Republican on the panel.

In September, Kohl and Lee convened a hearing of the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee to examine Google's effects on competition and heard testimony from Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and others. Based on that hearing, Kohl and Lee have signed a letter to FTC Chairman Jon Liebowitz urging his agency to investigate Google's business practices.

In the letter, the two lawmakers point out that Google began as a simple search engine, whose mission was to transfer web surfers to web pages of interest as soon as possible.

Changing business model

"Google's business model has changed dramatically in recent years," the two lawmakers wrote. "Google now not only seeks to link users to relevant websites, but also to answer user queries, provide a variety of related services, and direct customers to additional information on its own secondary web pages."

To achieve those objectives, the senators say Google has acquired other companies that produce Internet content and other services and has put a number of smaller players out of business. They say it's reasonable to ask whether Google is still acting as an honest broker in the search field, or favors it's own sites.

"We believe these allegations regarding Google's search engine practices raise important competition issues," the letter concludes. "We are committed to ensuring that consumers benefit from robust competition in online search and that the Internet remains the source of much free-market innovation. We therefore urge the FTC to investigate the issues raised at our Subcommittee hearing to determine whether Google's actions violate antitrust law or substantially harm consumers or competition in this vital industry."

A spokesman for Google noted the lawmakers did not accuse the company of violating antitrust laws and said it would cooperate with any FTC probe.