It has taken three years to come to trial, but the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Google began recently and some revelations have begun to heat up the story.
The DOJ claims that Google abused its dominance in online search by forming partnerships with device manufacturers and internet browsers to use its search engine as the product’s default option.
The charges allege that these multibillion-dollar deals gave Google an unfair advantage, making it nearly impossible for rival companies to compete.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was called to testify against his company’s largest rival.
Nadella discussed how difficult it was to gain ground on Google’s search engine market share because of the company’s aggressive partnering program making Google the default on many popular phones and browsers.
Microsoft worries that Google’s search dominance allows the company to unduly influence emerging AI tools through the same business practices.
Despite Microsoft’s estimated $2 trillion market cap, and having spent tens of millions on its own search engine, Nadella does not believe that his company will ever be able to compete successfully against Google on the search engine front.
Earlier the DOJ lawyer pressed VP of Product Management, Adam Juda on specifics around its online auctions which the US believes Google manipulates to pad corporate profit.
Google already lost an antitrust lawsuit in Europe and was forced to pay $4 billion.
If Google loses the case brought by the US DOJ, it is unclear how high the fine would be.
Another possible outcome would be for the judge to order Alphabet’s businesses broken up, but many insiders consider this a highly unlikely outcome.
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