le to face antitrust trial //

Tuesday will see the start of the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google for its dominance in search engines.

U.S. The case, U.S. This is just one of many antitrust suits against the company. The DOJ filed a case in January against Google for its role as an advertising publisher, auctioneer, and broker.

Dig deeper: Feds file anti-monopoly lawsuit against Google’s Adtech

The charges. The charges.

The DOJ claimed that Google had an illegal monopoly on online search by preinstalling its search app on devices. The government claims that this allowed Google to dominate its competitors in the search engine market.

Federal prosecutors will likely argue that Google does not allow a free market for rivals to offer better search options with technical perks – such as the speed of search results – and policy choices, like more stringent privacy practices.

The Defense. Google has strongly reacted to the accusations of anticompetitive behaviour. Google argues that its products and services have become more popular not because Google has shifted the playing field in favor of potential competitors, but because they are better.

Google will also argue that its contracts as default search engine on browsers do not restrict competition and are not exclusive. The company claims that users can set up a different default search engine easily and that its contracts don’t limit other search options.

Why we care. Three words: search engine optimization. Google is the main search engine in the U.S. The loss of the company will have a huge impact on how the tech giants work and the way that consumers access online information.

What’s on the line? The U.S., along with its state allies, is not looking for a monetary fine but an injunction that would prevent Google from continuing to engage in the alleged anticompetitive conduct. A similar order could have major business implications for Google. In its lawsuit, for example, the government claimed that the court might break up Google as a result of a fix.

The Justice Department could argue that it wants to stop Google’s alleged monopoly in search from being used to negotiate exclusive deals with new emerging markets such as artificial intelligence.

This case is seen by many as the most significant challenge to the tech industry’s power since DOJ sued Microsoft for its dominance in the personal computer market back in 1998. In that case, the trial court found Microsoft had illegally attempted to block Netscape Navigator, a rival browser. Microsoft reached a settlement later that kept the company intact.

The article Google to face antitrust lawsuit first appeared on MarTech.