In a high-stakes antitrust lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers argued that Google’s dominance as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly, propped up by the tech giant’s annual spending of more than $20 billion to lock out competition. Google, however, maintains that its ubiquity is a result of its excellence and ability to deliver the results consumers are looking for.
The 10-week trial, the biggest antitrust case in more than two decades, concluded with closing arguments on Friday before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who must now decide whether Google violated antitrust laws in maintaining its monopoly status as a search engine.
Much of the case centered around the contracts Google has with companies like Apple, which make Google the default search engine preloaded on cellphones and computers. Evidence presented at trial showed that Google spends more than $20 billion a year on such contracts, which the Justice Department lawyers claim is indicative of how important it is for Google to block competitors from gaining a foothold.
Google argues that consumers could easily switch to other search engines if they wanted, but they prefer Google because of its superiority. The company also contends that the government defines the search engine market too narrowly, and that it faces intense competition from targeted searches on platforms like Amazon, AirBnB, and Yelp, as well as from social media companies like Facebook and TikTok.
During Friday’s arguments, Judge Mehta questioned whether these other companies are truly in the same market as Google, noting that Google has the unique ability to place ads in direct response to consumers’ search queries. Google’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, countered that social media companies have extensive information about users’ interests that is just as powerful.
If Judge Mehta finds that Google violated antitrust laws, he will schedule a “remedies” phase of the trial to determine what should be done to bolster competition in the search engine market. The government has not yet specified what kind of remedy it would seek.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.