Judge Beth Labson Freeman of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California has thrown out an anti-trust case against Google.
The judge ruled that Google did not hurt customers by pre-installing its apps on Android handsets.
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The case was filed by two consumers claiming it was an unfair business practice on Google’s part to require Android smartphone manufacturers like Samsung and HTC to pre-install its suite of apps—with YouTube, Google Drive and Google Maps—in their default setting.
The suit argued that the Google deal kept Microsoft’s Bing search engine from reaching potential consumers.
The attorney for the claimants argued that ” there is no lawful, pro-competitive reason for Google to condition licenses to pre-load popular Google apps like this.”
But Judge Freeman ruled that the claimants’ “alleged injuries” were invalid, since the alleged lack of price competition and loss of innovation and consumer choice “are not the necessary means by which defendant is allegedly accomplishing its anti-competitive ends.”
That’s a three alleging in one paragraph.
“There are no facts alleged to indicate that defendant’s conduct has prevented consumers from freely choosing among search products or prevented competitors from innovating, ” Judge Freeman concluded.
The complainants have three weeks to amend their complaint in order to reopen the case.
