Who gets Google? A regulatory dilemma

WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- It is a coin toss to see which U.S. regulator takes the lead in a broad probe of Internet giant Google for possible antitrust practices, observers said.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice both have jurisdiction over antitrust laws and both have considerable expertise and some experience taking on technology firms, a relatively new frontier the legal landscape, Politico reported Monday.

In the Justice Department's favor is a recent case that forced Google to accept conditions as it bought travel software firm ITA, the department's experience taking on Microsoft in 1993, its successful 2008 challenge to an advertising deal between Google and Yahoo!, and its challenge of Google's settlement with publishers and authors that was meant to give it control over a massive digital library, the Washington publication said.

In the FTC's favor is a victory that forced Google to subject its privacy practices to regulatory review for 20 years, a recently beefed up staff for tackling technology firms and its ability to employ Section 5 of the FTC act that allows it to "a much lower standard of proof," said antitrust attorney Makan Delrahim, formerly with the Justice Department.

"If I were Google, I'd be more concerned about FTC," Delrahim told Politico.

There are various guesses, but no definitive answer yet to the question posed by Rebecca Arbogast, managing director of research firm Stifel Nicolaus: "Who is going to be the cop on the Google beat?"