Episode 13- Alissa Cooper - Google Search and AI Competition: Comparing UK, EU and US approaches

In this episode, Anush and Jasper are joined by Dr. Alissa Cooper, Executive Director of the Knight-Georgetown Institute, to discuss KGI's recent submissions to competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic regarding Google's search monopoly. The conversation begins with the CMA's provisional designation of Google under the UK's new Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act. Alissa explains why KGI supports the designation but criticizes the intervention roadmap for prioritizing ineffective measures like choice screens and data portability over more impactful remedies such as restricting default payments and requiring data sharing. The discussion then shifts to Judge Mehta's remedies decision in the US Google search case, where Alissa unpacks the concerning contradictions in allowing default payments to continue despite the liability opinion's thorough documentation of their anticompetitive harm. She examines the risks of courts over-relying on limited empirical evidence, and why expectations of hypothetical future AI competition are insufficient to address Google's present monopoly. Drawing on her unique background spanning Internet standards, policy advocacy, and industry leadership, Alissa offers cross-jurisdictional lessons on designing effective interventions in complex technology markets and identifies fundamental principles that competition authorities are missing in their approaches to digital platform regulation.