Wed. Nov 6th, 2024
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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and a group of state attorneys-general have taken technology giant Google to court in Washington, accusing it of exploiting its dominance of the internet search market to lock out competitors and prevent innovation.

It’s the biggest US antitrust case in a quarter of a century, and Google is fighting to protect its stranglehold on around 90 per cent of the global internet search business.

“This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition,” the DOJ’s lead litigator Kenneth Dintzer says.

With the civil trial now into its second week, let’s take a look at what both sides’ arguments have been, and what could happen next.

What is Google accused of doing?

The US government claims Google has rigged the market in its favour by signing deals to make its search engine the default on many different devices, thereby making competition more difficult.

The DOJ filed its lawsuit against Google in 2020, and alleged the company had used its internet search dominance to gain an unfair advantage. It called Google “the gatekeeper of the internet”, and “a monopolist”.

Government lawyers say Google spends billions of dollars each year to be the default search engine on web browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.

“Google pays more than $US10 billion ($15.5 billion) per year for these privileged positions,” litigator Mr Dintzer said.

“Google’s contracts ensure that rivals cannot match the search quality ad monetisation, especially on phones … Through this feedback loop, this wheel has been turning for more than 12 years. It always turns to Google’s advantage.”

A man in a suit, tie and glasses walks on a footpath outside a court, with other people in businesswear walking behind him
Government lawyer Kenneth Dintzer says Google uses contracts with other companies to crush competition in the search market.(AP: Jose Luis Magana)

Mr Dintzer said Google was also dominant because of the billions of searches it processed each day, which are used to improve future searches and create advantages over rivals.

He also cited an internal Google document that called its arrangements with device makers and telecommunications companies an “Achilles Heel” for rival search engines.

Government lawyers have also claimed tactics used by Google have prevented Apple from developing a search engine of its own.

Mr Dintzer has claimed that Google deleted documents to keep them out of court proceedings, and sought to hide others under attorney-client privilege.

“They destroyed documents for years,” he said. “They turned history off, your honour, so they could rewrite it in this court.”

What has Google said in its defence?

Google says it dominates the search market because its products are better than those of its competitors. It also argues that users can switch the default search engine on their devices relatively easily.

Despite dominating the search market, the company says it faces a wide range of competition from rivals such as Microsoft’s Bing, as well as social platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Reddit, but improvements to its services mean users keep coming back.

“There are lots of way users access the web other than default search engines, and people use them all the time,” said attorney John Schmidtlein, who is representing Google.

A close up of a middle-aged man in a suit, tie and glasses walking outside with his mouth slightly open.

Google’s top litigator John Schmidtlein says the company faces competition from many other technology firms.(AP: Nathan Howard)

In a statement before the trial began, Google described the DOJ’s lawsuit as “deeply flawed”.

The company’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, wrote that Google and its parent company Alphabet planned to show that its agreements with other companies “reflect choices by browsers and device makers based on the quality of our services and the preferences of consumers”.

He said Google was not the only company that paid other companies to have their web browser available on other devices.

“In short, our success comes down to the quality of our products, not the quantity of our contracts,” Mr Walker said.

He also pointed to Microsoft making Bing the default search engine on Windows, and claimed many Windows users still chose to search with Google.

“In fact, ‘Google’ is the number one search query on Bing worldwide. Contrary to the DOJ’s theory, people know they have choices, and they make them,” he said.

“We respectfully disagree with those who want to change antitrust law to promote the welfare of competitors rather than consumers.”

A man in a suit and tie holds a bag and walks on a footpath. A man in a suit, bowtie and hat in the image of Mr Monopoly follows

Google’s Kent Walker is followed outside court by a protester dressed as the Mr Monopoly character.(AP: Nathan Howard)

Who has testified in court so far?

The trial’s first witness was Google chief economist Hal Varian.

The DOJ’s Mr Dintzer produced a 2003 memo in which Mr Varian had urged Google employees to be cautious about how they discussed competition with Microsoft.

“We should be careful about what we say in both public and private,” the memo said, adding that references to things like “cutting off their air supply” should be avoided.

A close up of a middle-aged man in a suit, tie and glasses, wearing a shoulder bag and walking outside.

Google’s chief economist Hal Varian has been cross-examined by DOJ lawyers in court.(AP: Nathan Howard)

Chris Barton, who worked for Google between 2004 and 2011, testified that he made it a priority to negotiate for Google to be the default search engine on mobile devices, with carriers and phone manufacturers being offered a share of ad revenue.

But he pointed out that Google wasn’t the only company trying to secure the status of a device’s default search engine.

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