Google argues that it faces stiff competition despite owning 90 percent of the search engine market.
Washington, September 12 (AP) – Google has exploited its market dominance Internet research to exclude its competitors and stifle innovation, the Justice Ministry demanded on Tuesday at the opening of the Major antitrust case in the United States in a quarter century.
“This case is about the future of the Internet and whether the Google search engine will ever face serious competition,” said Kenneth Dintzer, the Justice Department’s senior trial attorney.
Over the next 10 weeks, federal prosecutors and state attorneys general will try to prove that Google manipulated the market in its favor by making its search engine the preferred option on a wide range of devices and systems. Judge Amit Mehta will most likely deliver a verdict by early next year. If it is concluded that Google violated the law, there will be another trial to decide what action to take against the Mountain View, California-based company.
Testimony is expected from top executives at Google, its parent company Alphabet Inc. and other powerful technology companies. Among them will likely be Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page four years ago. Court documents also indicate that Eddy Cue, a senior Apple executive, will be called to the stand.
The Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit against Google nearly three years ago during Donald Trump’s presidency, accusing the company of using its search engine dominance to gain an unfair advantage over its competitors. Government lawyers claim Google is improperly protecting its dominance by paying billions of dollars annually to be the preferred search engine on iPhones and browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.
Regulators also allege that Google illegally manipulated the market in its favor by requiring its search engine to be linked to its search engine software Android for smartphones when manufacturers want full access to the Android App Store.
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Google argues that it faces stiff competition despite owning 90 percent of the search engine market. Its competitors, he added, range from search engines like Microsoft’s Bing to websites like Amazon and Yelp, where consumers can type in questions about what to buy or where to go.
From Google’s perspective, constant improvements to its search engine are the reason people use it more often.
