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Google defends itself in once-in-a-generation US antitrust trial

  • The US government says Google paid US$10 billion annually to the likes of AT&T, Apple and Mozilla to be the default search engine
  • Google’s lawyer argues that when users wanted to search, they turned to Google no matter the default, according to a Microsoft document

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Google is defending itself in a major antitrust trial in the US. Photo: Reuters
Reuters
Search and advertising giant Google gave a glimpse of a main leg of its defence in court on Thursday, through data showing users happily stick with its search engine when pre-installed on their devices and quickly switch from Bing or others they like less.
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The Justice Department is arguing in a trial that began on Tuesday that the Alphabet unit sought agreements with mobile carriers to win powerful default positions on smartphones to dominate search. The government argues that this antitrust trial, the biggest in decades, will determine the future of the internet.

The government wrapped up questioning of Antonio Rangel, who teaches behavioural biology at the California Institute of Technology, on Thursday. Rangel argued that consumers were likely to stick with browsers on computers and mobile phones that were pre-installed as the default application.

The government says Google paid US$10 billion annually to wireless companies like AT&T, device makers like Apple and browser makers like Mozilla to be the default search engine to fend off rivals and keep its market share near 90 per cent.
A protester dressed as Mr. Monopoly followed Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs and chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet, after the first day of the Google antitrust trial at federal court in Washington. Photo: AP Photo
A protester dressed as Mr. Monopoly followed Kent Walker, president of Global Affairs and chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet, after the first day of the Google antitrust trial at federal court in Washington. Photo: AP Photo

John Schmidtlein, a lawyer for Google, during cross-examination of Rangel, pointed to instances where a significant number of user search queries went to Google even when another search engine was the default.

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Schmidtlein also showed an internal Microsoft document from several years ago about search use by people who carried a BlackBerry, an early smart device. Verizon BlackBerries had Bing as the default, AT&T and T-Mobile BlackBerries had Yahoo, while Sprint had Google as the default, the document showed.

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