TECH - Google Stares Down Largest Tech Antitrust Ruling In 2 Decades — Is AT&T-Style Breakup Next? | Benzinga
Closing arguments for the largest antitrust trial to date against Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), also known as Google, wrapped up last week.
Now, it's up to Judge Amit Mehta to decide on a ruling that could change the fate of the company and others in the big tech space.
Mehta, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is expected to come up with a decision before the end of the year.
The case was put forth by the Justice Department in 2020, together with attorneys general from 11 states, who are arguing that Google has engaged in anti-competitive practices in order to maintain its dominance in the internet search space.
Specifically, they're looking at the billions of dollars Google pays monthly to other tech companies in order to secure its place as the default search engine in Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung, LG, Motorola owned by Lenovo Group Ltd (OTC:LNVGY) and other devices as well as in browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Opera. The plaintiffs argue that this practice prevents other companies from succeeding with their own search engine products, giving Google disproportionate market share in the search engine space.
Last week, court documents revealed that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be the default search engine on Safari, the web browser used on iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. In 2021, the figure amounted to $26.3 billion when including other browsers like Firefox.
Google is estimated to account for about 90% of all internet searches, widely outpacing competitors like Microsoft Corp's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing, Yahoo Search or DuckDuckGo, a search engine that is privately owned and focused on user privacy.
The final arguments from Google's attorneys as well as DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist ...