All that notwithstanding, Google cutting the check is a concession to the merits of the Antitrust Division’s case. As Lee Hepner put it, “If it wasn’t clear already, Google is acknowledging that actual monetary damages, even if trebled, are an insufficient deterrent for a trillion dollar entity to illegally maintain a monopoly.”
There are a couple of things going on here. First, Google has an unlimited budget for its antitrust defense, and it also does an immense amount of product testing. It’s quite likely that it did mock trials in front of test juries, and found that the outcome probably wasn’t good. The judge in the case, Leonie Brinkema, has been pretty annoyed at Google, so it’s not a promising outcome if they go with a bench trial. But they will bet on the judge than a jury. Second, circuit courts are usually more reluctant to overturn a jury than a judge, so Google wants Brinkema to have to author an opinion that they can then try to overturn.
Ugh when will the governments finally dare close Google?
That would give apple a monopoly in the mobile space and Microsoft a monopoly in the search/business app space.
Oh well. Torque wrench overtighten these anti-monopoly laws that make duopolies the most common thing
If Google doesn’t get broken up over such blatant bribery, I don’t know what it’ll take.
The entire concept of having idiots from the area decide your fate went out of style with the wild west. The average person has no ghastly idea what the case is even about. These are people that don’t even know the difference between WiFi, “the internet”, and google itself.
If you really want a jury for a technical discussion it should be a jury of technical people versed in the subject.
But overall, ban jury duty. Archaic stupid process.
Juries are vital. Yes we should be able to select for understanding and knowledge, but they’re also there to represent the will of the people from whom the government derives its power.
If the people are too uneducated to understand things then maybe we need to fund education better.
They are not vital. Almost no countries in the world practice trial by jury other than The US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. The US is the only country in the world that uses trial by jury for civil cases.
The law is complex and nuanced. Most people lack the understanding and background to apply the law justly and uniformly. It is an antiquated idea that should go.
Yes, we should let the unbiased and just judicial system remove any potential check on it’s power through the exclusion of a jury. Surely then things will be better. In fact I can’t think of a single situation where allowing a judge and some lawyers to interpret the nuances of law led to anything terrible.
Nope, it’s the stupid idiots who don’t know anything about… What ever I want to make up right now
