Today The trial against Google for the dominant position of its search engine begins in the United States, a process in which the country’s federal regulators will try to dismantle their empire by trying to prove that those from Mountain View manipulated the market in their favor by making their search engine the default on a multitude of devices and elements. Not only that, since according to CNBC also An attempt will be made to prove that the company destroyed evidence once it was clear that there was a good chance that she would be tried for the charges against her.
Apparently, Google did not take the necessary measures to save chat messages between employees, which should have been under legal custody. Among other things, the company did not prevent them from self-destructing. As is usual, the company denies the accusations of destruction of evidence made by the Department of Justice.
It will be a long trial, lasting approximately 10 weeks, and when it is heard for sentencing it is not expected to arrive until the first weeks of next year 2024. If then District Judge Amit Mehta decides that Google violated the law, another trial will take place. trial in which the steps to be taken to control Google will be decided.
During the hearing, the main executives of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, are called to testify. Among them will probably be its CEO, Sundar Pichai. But executives from other large technology companies will also testify, among whom could be, according to the documents with which the court works, Apple executive Andy Cue.
Lawsuit for monopolistic practices with the search engine
It has been three years since the United States Department of Justice sued Google for monopoly, alleging that the company had used its dominant position in Internet searches to gain an unfair advantage over its competitors. Government lawyers then alleged that Google protects its franchise through a kind of kickback scheme by paying billions of dollars each year to be the default search engine on the iPhone, and in browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox.
Regulators also alleged that Google has manipulated the market in its favor by requiring its search engine to be integrated into its Android software for smartphones if device makers want full access to the Android app store.
In addition, the company will also have another charge against it: that Google did not even make its search advertising tool, Search Ads 360, interoperable enough with Microsoft’s Bing. Instead, Google «favors advertising on its own platform and directs advertisers’ spending toward itself, artificially denying advertisers the opportunity to evaluate options that would give advertisers better options«.
In its defense, Google has argued that it faces a wide range of competition, despite having more than 90% of the Internet search market. For the company, its rivals range from search engines like Bing to websites like Yelp and Amazon, sites where Internet surfers can ask questions about something they need to buy or the restaurants they want to go to. For its managers, it is the continuous improvements to its search engine that explain why people continue to open its search engine almost instinctively.
Possible consequences for Google if it loses the trial
This trial is the largest monopoly trial in the last 25 years. The previous one, in 1998, was also against a technology company: Microsoft. The company was accused of forcing computer makers that relied on its dominant Windows operating system to install the Internet Explorer browser just as the global expansion of the Internet was about to begin.
These practices practically prevented competition from a browser that had been quite popular until recently: Netscape. He lost his mind, and in the opinion of many, his focus in the face of the rise of the Internet, from which Google precisely benefited.
Several of the Justice Department team members working on the Google case, including Justice Department Attorney Kenneth Dintzer, also worked on the Microsoft investigation.
It is unknown what consequences this trial may have for Google, but what does seem certain is that If you lose it, action will be taken. to greatly reduce their power. One of them can be force you to stop paying to Apple and other companies so that Google is the default search engine on smartphones and computers. In fact, the government alleges that these agreements blocked several important distribution channels for search, creating very strong barriers to entry for rival search engines in the face of competition. Therefore, in addition to a large fine if the trial does not go well for Google, it may face various measures that curb its reach.
