Judge grills US and Google on antitrust claims
Google tried to poke holes in both sides' cases during closing arguments Thursday, as he weighs a ruling that could reshape the technology industry.
Judge Amit P. Mehta was presiding over the first day of closing arguments in the most consequential tech antitrust case since the U.S. government sued Microsoft in the late 1990s. The Justice Department has sued Google, accusing it of illegally shoring up a monopoly in online search. Google has denied the claims.
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Offering CollegeCourseWebsiteIndian School of BusinessISB Professional Certificate in Product ManagementVisitMITMIT Technology Leadership and InnovationVisitIndian School of BusinessISB Product ManagementVisit On Thursday, Mehta questioned the government's argument that Google's dominance had hurt the quality of the experience for searching for information online. But he also pushed Google to defend its central argument that it isn't a monopoly because consumers use other companies such as Amazon to search for shopping items and TikTok to search for music clips.
«Certainly I don't think the average person would say, 'Google and Amazon are the same thing,'» Mehta said.
His ruling — expected in the coming weeks or months — will help set a precedent for a series of government challenges to tech giants' size and power. Federal regulators have also filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple, Amazon and Meta, and a second case against Google over online advertising.
Before the start of closing arguments in a
