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Testifying within the largest U.S. antitrust case in 1 / 4 century, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his firm’s observe of paying Apple and different tech firms to make Google the default search engine on their gadgets, saying the intent was to make the consumer expertise “seamless and simple.’’
The Division of Justice contends that Google — an organization whose very identify is synonymous with scouring the web — pays off tech firms to lock out rival engines like google to smother competition and innovation. The funds got here to greater than $26 billion in 2021, in response to court docket paperwork the federal government entered into the report final week.
Google counters that it dominates the market as a result of its search engine is best than the competitors.
Pichai, the star witness in Google’s protection, testified Monday that Google’s funds to cellphone producers and wi-fi cellphone firms have been partly meant to nudge them into making expensive safety upgrades and different enhancements to their gadgets, not simply to make sure Google was the first search engine users encounter once they open their smartphones or computer systems.
Google makes cash when customers click on on ads that pop up in its searches and shares the income with Apple and different firms that make Google their default search engine.
The antitrust case, the largest because the Justice Division went after Microsoft and its dominance of web browsers 25 years in the past, was filed in 2020 throughout the Trump administration. The trial started Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court docket in Washington D.C.
U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta possible received’t concern a ruling till early subsequent yr. If he decides Google broke the regulation, one other trial will decide rein in its market power. The Mountain View, California-based firm may very well be stopped from paying Apple and different firms to make Google the default search engine.
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