Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff members have recommended to the agency’s five commissioners that the FTC pursue an antitrust lawsuit against Google for the search giant’s alleged use of its recently acquired mobile unit Motorola Mobility’s intellectual property to block competitors in the mobile device market from using key patents, Bloomberg reported late Thursday afternoon, citing four anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation.
Importantly, the FTC has not yet officially taken action, nor formally announced any conclusion of its antitrust investigations into Google, one launched in June of 2011 over Google’s alleged misuse of its dominant position in the search market, the other launched in June 2012 over mobile device patents. Google acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in August 2011. In April, the FTC hired prominent former Justice Department prosecutor Beth A. Wilkinson as outside counsel in its Google investigations, a move interpreted by the New York Times as one that would put the FTC in better position to sue Google.
