The United States Department of Justice has published materials from the antitrust trial against Google. The computer giant claims that authorities want to punish it for its success.
According to the lawsuit, Google argued that its position as the world’s leading search engine is the result of “continuous hard work” and a conviction would violate US antitrust laws.
“Punishing a successful company that has outperformed its competitors in innovation to benefit consumers harms competition, not the other way around,” the document says.
A company spokesperson said the government’s goal is to support competitors “in the hope that this will give them more incentives and opportunities to improve search quality, even though they continue to fail to achieve that success.”
The Department of Justice, in turn, maintains that Google spends “billions of dollars a year” to suppress competition in the market instead of investing in the development of its search engine and search advertising.
The Justice Department, supported by a coalition of states, accuses Google of using exclusivity agreements that the department says limit competition in the market. The owners of other search engines, Microsoft and DuckDuckGo, also act as witnesses.
Last fall, a Google witness let it slip during his testimony that the service gives up 36% of search advertising revenue to Safari to remain the Cupertino company’s default browser.
The parties’ final arguments in this case are expected in May 2024, after which Google will have to defend itself in another trial related to the abuse of its dominant position in the advertising technology market.
Author:
Akhmed Sadulayev
Source: RB
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