The closing arguments will bring Google and the DOJ back to U.S. District Court after concluding a 10-week trial in November that focused on the ways Google has maintained its dominance in the market.
A central component of the allegations brought by the DOJ, along with a coalition of state attorneys general, centers on agreements Google has reached with partners, such as Apple, to be the default search engine on devices. That debate will likely emerge as a prominent point in the closing arguments.
Google has pushed back strongly on allegations of anticompetitive behavior through the agreements. Google’s main defense is that its search engine is better, which is how it maintains its dominance and secures agreements with partners to be the default service.
“We are working very, very hard; for any given query we provide the best experience,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during his testimony in October. “That’s always been our true north.”
But the DOJ’s closing arguments will likely highlight how the government believes Google failed to explain why the company paid to secure the default agreements.
During the trial, it was revealed that Google paid $26 billion in 2021 to secure its position as a default search engine on mobile phones and web browsers.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
