Why the FTC Probe into Google and Apple Won't Matter

Monday the FTC declared it was investigating a potential antitrust violation between Google and Apple. The investigation is based on a 95-year-old law that prohibits a person's presence on the board of two rival companies when it would reduce competition between them. The board members shared between the two companies are Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Genetech CEO Arthur Levinson.

Whatever the FTC's purpose in launching this probe may be, the end result does not appear as though it'll have a significant impact on either company.

Section 8 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 isn't used often because of its uncertain legal nature. "Antitrust experts say that investigations of interlocking directorates rarely lead to major confrontations between companies and the government," the New York Times reports. "The issue is rarely pursued, lawyers say, in part because it is difficult to prove the impact of the overlapping directors," writes the Wall Street Journal.

It's true that Google and Apple's ongoing competition (iTunes vs. YouTube; iPhoto vs. Picasa; iPhone OS vs. Android; Safari vs. Chrome) may appear to shrink the market, but using Section 8 as a scythe may be an ineffective way to investigate two companies on antitrust matters. If Google and Apple were actually behaving in a manner that suggested the two companies had monopolistic intent -- ahem Microsoft ahem -- the FTC surely would have pulled out a different section, or a different law altogether, rather than resorting to the most minimal of attacks.

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