Google, Justice Department make final arguments about whether search engine is a monopoly
The government and Google are making their closing arguments in a high-stakes antitrust trial to a federal judge in Washington who must now decide whether the tech giant’s search engine constitutes an illegal monopoly
WASHINGTON — Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than $20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit.
Google, on the other hand, maintains that its ubiquity flows from its excellence, and its ability to deliver results customers are looking for.
“It would be an unprecedented decision to punish a company for winning on the merits,” Google’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, said late Friday afternoon in summation of the company's closing arguments.
Justice Department lawyer Ken Dintzer told the judge that “today must be the day” for him to step in and stop Google's monopolistic behavior, which he likened to the tactics used by Microsoft two decades ago that prompted a similar antitrust battle.
The U.S. government, a coalition of states and Google all made their closing arguments Friday in the 10-week lawsuit to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now decide whether Google broke the law in maintaining a monopoly status as a search engine.
Much of the case, the biggest antitrust trial in more than two decades, has revolved around how much Google derives its strength from contracts it has in place with companies like Apple to make Google the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and computers.
At trial, evidence showed that Google spends more than $20 billion a year on such contracts. Justice Department lawyers have said the huge sum is
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