A three-week hearing that could reshape tech giant Google began Monday in a Washington courtroom. The case could change how tech companies do business, as well as how people find answers to their online search queries. Government lawyers made their case in opening statements, saying that Google should be forced to sell Chrome, its web browser, which pushes people to the Google search engine.
The company should also be forced to help rival search engines that it has unfairly kept out of competition, Justice Department lawyer David Dahlquist reportedly said.
«This is the time for the court to tell Google and all other monopolists who are out there listening, and they are listening, that there are consequences when you break the antitrust laws,» Dahlquist said, according to The New York Times.
Google counters
Google’s lawyers say that any remedies should only consider the company’s deals with companies such as Apple, Mozilla and Samsung to make it the default search engine for smartphones and other devices.
«Google won its place in the market fair and square,» said company attorney John Schmidtlein, according to NBC News.
Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia is now hearing arguments, and executives from major tech and artificial intelligence companies are expected to testify.
Mehta is the same judge who ruled in August that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in search. That trial, held last year, took 10 weeks and was years in the making.
«After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,» Mehta wrote in the August decision. «It has violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act.»
After Mehta hears arguments, he’s expected to order remedies by the end of summer.
Google is currently the king of online search, with over 89% global market share, according to GlobalStats, down slightly from 91% last summer.
Representatives for Google and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
OpenAI wants to buy Chrome?
On Tuesday, OpenAI executive Nick Turley testified that his company would be interested in buying the Google Chrome browser if the company is forced to sell it.
He also said that ChatGPT, OpenAI’s artificial intelligence chatbot, is «years away from its goal of being able to use its own search technology to answer 80% of queries,» according to Reuters.
Turley also testified that Google declined an attempt by OpenAI to use Google search technology within ChatGPT.
Potential outcomes
Many things could happen to Google, including a breakup of the company. If such a penalty were instituted, it might involve breaking off the Chrome browser or Android smartphone operating system parts of the company.
This would be the government’s first attempt to dismantle a company for illegal monopolization since its unsuccessful efforts to break up Microsoft two decades ago.
Google could also be forced to make its data available to competitors or abandon the controversial economic deals that made the Google search engine the default on devices such as the iPhone.
Why does this matter?
Google is not the only company facing legal issues. Major tech companies Apple and Amazon are also facing antitrust lawsuits. An antitrust trial against Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, began on April 14.
The trial could also affect the burgeoning artificial intelligence era. The Justice Department has said that if remedies are not imposed on Google, it expects Google to use its AI products to further extend its monopoly.
And since the August trial, presidential administrations have changed. As the Times notes, the hearings signal that the Trump administration intends to keep an eye on the changing tech industry.
Do people switch from default search engines?
The August case focused on Google paying Apple and other companies to make its search engine the default on devices such as Apple’s iPhone. Google has said it didn’t maintain a monopoly through such agreements and that consumers could change their device defaults to use other search engines.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in October that the idea that people shift from one search engine to another is «completely bogus» and added, «defaults is the only thing that matters in changing search behavior.»
According to the Justice Department, the Google search engine is used for nearly 90% of web searches, but the company disputes that number, the Times reports.
The Sherman Antitrust Act, which dates back to 1890, prohibits activities restricting interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace, essentially outlawing corporate monopolies. It’s the cornerstone of US antitrust legislation, leading to the federal government’s breakup of late 19th century Gilded Age industrial giants.
CNET’s Imad Khan contributed to this report.
