On Tuesday, the US government accused Google of paying $10 billion annually to Apple and other companies to safeguard its monopoly over online search, which marks the largest anti-trust case in the US in the last 20 years. The justice department lawyer Kenneth Dintzer said that the case revolves around the future of the internet and Google’s genuine search results.
In a courtroom in Washington, Google lawyer John Schmidtlein argued and defended Google from the case, the Department of Justice hired the lawyer without merit. Over the course of 10 weeks, a number of witnesses have been called one by one to stand and speak about Google as the gaint search engine attempts to persuade Judge Amit P. Mehta. This trial marks the first time in over 20 years that US prosecutors have pointed a finger at a big tech company after Microsoft’s claims for the Windows Operating System. However, Schmidtlein believes that Google day-by-day innovates and improves its search engine for many years, a fact which cannot be ignored.
Moreover, Mehta observed something funny about the high number of lawyers in his courtroom, even in Washington DC. The case has been discussed that Google achieved an unfair benefit in online search results by creating exclusive contracts with gadget makers, mobile operators, and other companies, which stopped other competitors from entering the market. Additionally, in this ongoing case, Google has announced many things in I/O 2023.
During the hearing with Judge Mehta, Dintzer revealed that Google is paying $10 billion yearly to companies like Apple to secure the monopoly of the search engine, as Google comes in some phones as the default browser, which stopped another search engine from growing. As a result of this unfair practice for many years, the government has identified a feedback loop where Google’s monopoly on user data has permitted its dominance to be widespread, making it impossible for competitors to come up forward.
