- Google on Friday previewed how it plans to fend off U.S. government allegations of illegal monopolization when the company goes on trial in Washington, DC, district court next week.
- The trial is the first major technology antimonopoly case in the US in decades.
- Google has claimed that the government’s arguments are “deeply flawed”.
Kent Walker speaks at a Grow with Google launch event in Cleveland.
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Google on Friday previewed how it plans to fend off U.S. government allegations of illegal monopolization when the company goes on trial in Washington, DC, district court next week.
The trial represents the first major tech antimonopoly case in the U.S. in decades, after the Justice Department successfully argued that Microsoft violated antitrust laws more than 20 years ago.
The DOJ and a coalition of attorneys general allege in this case that Google used exclusionary agreements with browser makers like Apple and phone makers that use its Android operating system to cut off rivals from access to the general search market. The states will also argue that Google failed to make its search advertising tool interoperable with Microsoft’s Bing in order to supposedly limit advertising spending to its own services.
Google has claimed that the government’s arguments are “deeply flawed”. Here are the key elements of his defense, as Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, laid out in a blog post on Friday:
- Google’s distribution agreements have not hurt search competition, as evidenced by the wide range of services offering search tools. Walker points to platforms such as TikTok, Reddit, Instagram and Amazon – a larger group than direct competitors such as Bing and Microsoft’s DuckDuckGo, which the government considers to be part of the relevant market.
- It is browser and device manufacturers that primarily choose to adopt default search engines, and they chose Google “because of the quality of our products,” according to Walker. He referred to Apple CEO Tim Cook’s comments in 2018 that Google’s search engine was the “best”.
- Google isn’t the only company paying for prominent placement in browsers, Walker wrote. Bing and Yahoo! also pay to be featured in Apple’s Safari.
- Walker says Google’s payments to device makers and carriers to promote its search product and browser are pure marketing, similar to how a cereal brand pays a supermarket to place its boxes on the shelf at eye level.
- Consumers can easily change the default search engine settings on their devices if they prefer a different service. According to Google, it only takes two clicks to change the default setting on the desktop version of Safari, and just a few more on mobile devices. Walker wrote that consumers showed their willingness to do so in 2014 when many Mozilla users changed their default Yahoo! surrounded. google it.
- To make its search ads tool as interoperable as the states apparently believe it is, Google would have to prioritize developing features for Microsoft over the needs of its own customers, Walker wrote. He added: “American law does not require you to prioritize your competitors’ preferences over those of your customers. And Microsoft, which has plenty of resources, has chosen not to develop its own search engine management tool.”
The DOJ and the Colorado State AG office, which is leading the states’ case, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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