Lawyer takes Google antitrust fight to Europe

In the 1990s, Gary Reback was known as Silicon Valley’s dragon slayer, a lawyer who persuaded the Justice Department to sue Microsoft, accusing it of abusing its dominant position in desktop computers. Newspapers and magazines called him “Bill Gates’ worst nightmare.”

Reback still makes his living fighting powerful tech companies, but today he is up against Google, not Microsoft. And instead of flying to Washington, he goes to Europe — a shift that, at least in Reback’s view, reflects how cozy Google has become with U.S. politicians.

“There isn’t anybody in Silicon Valley who thinks that this administration is ever going to do anything that really hurts Google,” said Reback, a lawyer at Carr & Ferrell in Menlo Park.

That view could be tested, as the Federal Trade Commission recently opened an inquiry into whether Google uses its Android operating software to bolster the dominance of products like its search engine. The investigation is still early but will be closely scrutinized by rivals who were incensed that an earlier FTC investigation did not result in charges against the company.

In the meantime, Brussels has become the venue of choice for U.S. antitrust lawyers and technology companies, which find European authorities more receptive to their complaints that Google is using the power of its search business to snuff out competitors.

In April, the European Commission filed charges that Google favors its own specialty or “vertical” sites over rival sites, like NexTag, a comparison shopping service that is one of Reback’s clients. Google responded in August and lawyers expect the European Commission to issue a judgment as soon as late this year.

Whatever happens, Google can expect to hear more from Reback. The European Commission has accelerated a separate investigation of Android, along with other aspects of Google’s business.

Today, Reback, 66, is less of a trailblazer than he was in the Microsoft case. Indeed, he is one among dozens of lawyers pursuing cases against Google in Europe.

The reason behind the venue change depends on where you stand. People in Google’s corner believe European technology companies, outflanked by U.S. competitors, want Europe’s policymakers to give them a leg up. Reback’s assessment is that U.S. regulators are afraid to confront large technology companies like Google.

There is a common wisdom in Silicon Valley that the industry’s health relies on upstarts’ unseating their larger competitors. Reback shares it.

“He believes the whole community of Silicon Valley is based on the success of the Davids of the world,” said Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

The debate is over how it happens. One view is that companies are unseated because they fail to see the future. Another, the one Reback shares, is that technology can stay fresh only with strong antitrust enforcement that curbs the kind of behavior he argued against in the Microsoft case — a case that, in his view, gave companies like Google the breathing room they needed to compete.