US accuses Google of paying billions to maintain search dominance, as antitrust trial opens
- The Justice Department says the payments to companies like Apple, AT&T and Mozilla helped keep its search engine’s market share at around 90 per cent
- Google argued that dissatisfied users could switch with ‘a few easy clicks’, and quality was the key to the engine’s popularity
Google argued on Tuesday that the US was wrong to say the search and advertising giant broke the law to hold onto its massive market share, noting its search engine was wildly popular because of its quality and that dissatisfied users could switch with “a few easy clicks”.
The US Justice Department has accused Alphabet’s Google of paying US$10 billion annually to device makers like Apple, wireless companies like AT&T, and browser makers like Mozilla to keep its search engine’s market share at around 90 per cent.
Google’s search engine is a key part of its business, driving advertising sales and other areas of profit for the world’s fourth most valuable company.
“This case is about the future of the internet,” said Kenneth Dintzer, arguing for the Justice Department that Google began in 2010 to illegally maintain its monopoly.
But Google’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, said the payments compensate partners for the work of making sure that the software gets timely security updates and other maintenance.
