Proactive Investors - Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has denied abuse of power allegations in a Washington DC court this week, as the search engine operator goes to trial over claims it holds a monopoly over the search engine market.
U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor, lawyer Kenneth Dintzer, heralded the trial as pivotal for the “future of the internet” in his opening remarks.
The search giant has been accused of creating a monopoly by collaborating with technology companies to install Google as the default search engine on Android phones and other devices.
If DOJ prosecutors are successful, the court could ask Google to break up the company, as they have called for “structural relief” if they win the case.
Google is estimated to have paid tech companies such as Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics (LON:0593xq) billions of dollars a year to pre-install its search engine as the default browser on their devices. It allegedly pays an estimated US$10 billion a year to be rolled out on Android and other mobile phones and devices.
Prosecutors claimed that arranging for Google to be the default search engine provider in this way is more “powerful” than other ways of disseminating search engines.
Google’s lawyer John Schmidtlein said Google competed “on the merits” to become a default search engine for its technology partners. The search giant’s legal defence team said it took “four taps” for consumers to switch to another search engine provider.
Apple first installed Google as its default search engine more than two decades ago in 2002 for free, but the search engine has since begun to make payments to the technology company and is expected to procure user data in return.
The search engine's defence team have argued that its competitors include a growing list of specialist sites and application, as well as search engines such as Bing, which is the default search technology on personal computers made by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
One such rival is ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence application developed by OpenAI, in addition to the conversational search function offered by search engine competitor Bing. It also faces hot competition in the field of food searches on platforms such as Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP).
The search giant stands accused of being a monopolist and flexing its muscle by discouraging Apple from rolling out more of its proprietary search-related technology. Google similarly allegedly persuaded Android mobile phone maker Samsung not to collaborate with a partner on a new type of search technology.
Google’s Managing Director Sundar Pichai is expected to stand trial alongside Apple executives in a trial that will last approximately ten weeks. Washington DC Judge Amit Mehta will preside over the hearing.
The search engine recently settled a case brought against its app store by United States prosecutors and is embroiled in a federal lawsuit over claims it holds a monopoly in its digital advertising business. It has also been fined in lawsuits in Europe over other allegations that it holds a market monopoly.