Google Faces Highly Consequential U.S. Antitrust Trial
Rulings from the trial could impact how global internet companies operate after years of unchecked growth.
- A federal judge has given the go-ahead to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)’s landmark case against Google’s alleged antitrust violations.
- While some claims by the DOJ have been dismissed, claims over how Google has built its monopolistic business will be scrutinized during the trial.
A landmark case by the U.S. DOJ, U.S. et al. v. Google, is now initiated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Although some claims have been thrown out, the case is a first by the federal government in terms of monopoly trials, scrutinizing whether tech giants have reached their dominant positions in their industry by unlawful means. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, and even executives of Apple are expected to testify during the trial.
The DOJ has been working for the past three years to build its case, alleging that Google has used illegal means to abuse its online search capabilities to kill competition. The case alleges that Google has made illegal agreements with companies such as Apple to make its search engine the default on their devices. While regulators have been scrutinizing actions such as mergers and acquisitions, this is the first time the businesses themselves will be scrutinized extensively.
Over the last few decades, tech companies have massively affected critical aspects of society, including information, communication, commerce, workforce, entertainment, and more. Any ruling from this trial will likely have repercussions on other tech giants, including Meta, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Google, in particular, holding over 90% of the search engine market share, can see significant impacts.
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Google Pushes for Closed Trial
While the antitrust case is crucial for the industry, Google has been pushing for the trial to be closed to the public. Google’s lawyers argued against allowing the public to access the audio feed of the trial proceedings through platforms like Zoom, arguing that trade secrets could not be revealed on a public forum.
However, several antitrust trials in the past, including American Airlines, JetBlue, and Microsoft Activision trials, have been given public access. The judge, Amit Mehra, has yet to decide whether an audio feed would be allowed.
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