The Justice Department on Tuesday took action against Google, alleging the company abused its market power and stifled competition.

Google responded in a blog post by stating that DOJ’s case is “deeply flawed,” and if successful, would raise phone prices and prop up lower-quality search alternatives. 

“The bigger point is that people don’t use Google because they have to, they use it because they choose to,” Kent Walker, senior vice president of global affairs, wrote in a post.

Walker also pointed to another post that focuses on Google’s free products and competition, but what it fails to bring up is the price for the free products — consumer data, willingly or unwillingly.

Mike Woosley, COO at Lotame, believes the DOJ “aimed at the entirely wrong target.” He thinks the DOJ used “arcane and dated” measures to build its case, and points to the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a measure of market concentration used to determine a market’s competitiveness, typically for pre- and post M&A transactions.

“The DOJ takes this approach because there is a long legacy of case law built on targeting this metric of concentration,” he wrote in an email. “The measurement dates back to 1945, and for the DOJ, it points them to pursuing victory in the “’Case of the (last) Century.’”

Employees at brands I spoke with that asked for anonymity did not share the same sentiment. They think Google created a monopoly and doesn’t allow for fair competition, especially in search.   

On Blind, an anonymous professional network, with 3.8 million verified users, a user ran a poll asking: Do you agree with U.S. government for suing Google for antitrust?The poll had 3,106 responses and dialogue with 383 professionals who commented on their own opinions.  

Overall, 43% of polled professionals responded saying, “No, Google did not illegally protect its monopoly.”

This is in stark contrast to the 87% of polled Google professionals who responded saying, “No, Google did not illegally protect its monopoly.”

Some 57% of those polled believe that “yes, the lawsuit has a merit.”

Breaking down the data by company, 80% of Adobe professionals said the lawsuit has merit, followed by 71% of polled LinkedIn professionals, 76% of polled Microsoft professionals, and 50% of polled Salesforce professionals.

A Google employee responded to the poll, writing: “Honestly I think tech is a political scapegoat for real median wages stagnating for the last like 4 decades.”

The report highlighting the overall responses is here.