The Woman Who Defeated Google

We talk with Doha Mekki, a top official at the Justice Department Antitrust Division under Joe Biden and architect of the Google monopolization cases.

(pic via Cory Doctorow)

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode with antitrust enforcer Doha Mekki on Apple, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Antitrust prosecutors, at their root, are law enforcement officers. They are policing markets and protecting competition throughout the U.S. economy. And their tactics are not unlike the kind of police work you might see depicted on Law & Order.

Today on the podcast, former DOJ Antitrust Division head Doha Mekki takes us behind the scenes of some of the most consequential monopoly cases in recent history, including the landmark Google search monopolization case. Drawing from her unique experience serving in both the Trump and Biden administrations, Mekki reveals how antitrust enforcement is essentially “policing for white collar crime,” albeit with a budget several orders of magnitude smaller than just Apple’s legal department. She shares surprising insights about building cases against tech giants, including how behavioral economists helped win the case against Google by explaining the “human element” of default search settings.

She also offers a fresh perspective on the generational shift happening in antitrust enforcement, and talks about how “norms” cannot save us in a time of government upheaval.

Listen via Apple:

Or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Another thing we’re doing this year is providing transcripts and video for every episode. Check your inbox for that soon.

Thank you so much for listening. If there’s a monopoly you’d like us to explore this year, or if you have anything else to tell us, please let us know by leaving a comment or by responding directly to this email.