Google Antitrust Trial: Google pays $10 billion every year to maintain monopoly, says US
Alphabet Inc.'s Google spends around more than $10 billion a year to maintain its position as the default search engine on web browsers and mobile devices, said US Justice department during the antitrust trial, that began in Washington on Tuesday. “This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google’s search engine will ever face meaningful competition," Kenneth Dintzer, a government lawyer, said in his opening statement. “The evidence will show they demanded default exclusivity to block rivals." The government lawer accused Google of abusing its monopoly in general search.
Dintzer said that Google became a monopoly by at least 2010. Now it controls around more than 89% of the online search market. “The company pays billions for defaults because they are uniquely powerful," he said.
The monopolisation trial of the Google is one of the biggest trial of the federal government against a US firm. The justice department and 52 attorneys general from states and US territories alleged Google of illegally maintaining its dominance by paying billions to tech rivals, smartphones makers and wireless providers. In exchange to the payment, Google was set as the preselected option or default search engine on mobile phones and web browsers.
The first phase of the trial will asses whether Google has illegally dominated the online search market or not. The case is being heard by a US District Judge Amit Mehta. The decision on the case is expected to be announced next year on whether Google broke the law or not.
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