Google CEO Sundar Pichai worries unintended consequences if US govt regulates tech firms for the sake of it

After facing an anti-trust issue with the United States government, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has cautioned against those wanting to regulate technology conglomerates just for the sake of doing it.

US Department of Justice is opening a case against Google for potential anti-trust violations. (File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: After facing an anti-trust issue with the United States government, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has cautioned against those wanting to regulate technology conglomerates just for the sake of doing it. In an interview with a TV News channel, Pichai said that his company has faced a similar situations in Europe and therefore the prove by US government was not a surprise for them. "Scrutiny is right and we will participate constructively in these discussions," he said and added: "I worry that if you regulate for the sake of regulating it, it has a lot of unintended consequences." As per various media reports, US Department of Justice is opening a case against the California-headquartered tech giant for potential anti-trust violations. The move by US government comes amid the ongoing debate on whether such large technology companies like Google, Facebook etc should be broken up. Back in 2017, Google was fined $22.7 billion over an anti-trust complaint from the European Commission regarding ranking of shopping search results and ads in 2010. Earlier this month, the Indian-American CEO praised the evolving market in India and said that Indian market has allowed Google to develop new products in the country and take it to the global level. Addressing the India Ideas Summit of US India Business Council (USIBC), Pichai also said that India and the US can lead on standardisation of privacy frameworks for better safeguards against privacy to ensure free flow of digital trade. Observing that Google has been in India now for "a very very long time", Pichai said that the number of Indian manufacturers who would make devices 'Made in India'. The Indian government, he said, has done a great job of making technology, one of the pillars by which, they will improve governance and as well as socioeconomic conditions there. "So we've been proud to be part of it," 46-year-old Pichai said at the summit after he received the Global Leadership Awards. "Our payments product in India was moving towards digital payments, so we thought it was the best market to push the future of payments. We tried it there and it's worked very well. And now that team is taking that payments product and bringing it out of India to the global market," he said. Last year, Google announced three goals that will drive its services in India. Seeking better safeguards against privacy to ensure free flow of digital trade, Pichai said that India and the US can lead on standardisation of privacy frameworks. (With additional information from PTI)