KGI’s work on search competition brings together experts from across economics, technology, law, and business to help advance and inform interventions to restore competition in the digital search market. Our work examines both high-profile antitrust litigation in the US and the development of novel ex-ante regulatory frameworks in Europe and the UK.
Search engines shape how billions of people find and access information and what voices get heard online. Google Search – the world’s dominant search engine – has faced mounting regulatory scrutiny and enforcement actions around the world over its anti-competitive practices designed to preserve its dominance across the web and devices. Search is a complex market where designing effective interventions requires grappling with questions related to large-scale data collection, advances in AI and other technological inputs, relationships with adjacent markets in mobile and on the web, and consumer behavior and decision-making in the market.
KGI’s work on search competition is focused on seeding and creating intellectual foundations for effective interventions amidst this complexity. Our work examines both high-profile antitrust litigation in the US and the development of novel ex-ante regulatory frameworks in Europe and the UK.
We convene experts from across economics, technology, law, and business to produce novel insights. We also produce our own technical analyses. Key outputs have included:
Join us in-person or virtually as Jonathan Sallet, lead litigator for the State Plaintiffs in the landmark US v. Google search antitrust case, breaks down the trial and remedies issued by the court.
In-person & Virtual
Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy Auditorium
125 E St. NW, Washington, DC
12:30pm ET
View this event
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On September 2, US District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued an opinion that many in the tech industry had been waiting on for more than 15 years: a ruling about how to rectify Google’s maintenance of its illegal monopoly in online search. The most consequential aspect of the opinion is that the remedies will not meaningfully address the conduct at the center of the case: Google paying distributors like Apple, Samsung, and Mozilla tens of billions of dollars per year to lock in Google Search as the default on nearly every mobile phone and across much of the desktop browser market.
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The UK Competition and Markets Authority has provisionally designated Google as having Strategic Market Status – a step toward curbing the company’s dominance in online search. The Knight-Georgetown Institute finds evidence to support this designation and urges the UK to prioritize stronger interventions that address key barriers to entry in the search market.
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The European Commission’s new guidelines to protect minors online mark a step forward in online child safety, offering recommendations for how platforms are designed, including limits on manipulative design techniques, defaults to maximize protection, more agency for children, and regular risk reviews.
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Robust and comprehensive remedies in the US government’s Google search antitrust case would help prevent Google from leveraging its monopoly power in search to dominate the emerging market for generative AI products.
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A new report by Ofcom, the UK’s communication services regulator, underscores the challenges researchers face in accessing platform data and proposes a roadmap to improve researcher’s access to data to support online safety.
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A new legislative toolkit from the Knight-Georgetown Institute equips lawmakers with modular components to support the development of legislation that encourages algorithmic feeds that put people first.
