le antitrust trial is about to start: What’s on the line?

The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google, and its dominance in search engines, is scheduled to begin on Tuesday.

U.S. The case, U.S.

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

The charges. The charges.

The DOJ says that Google was able to maintain a monopoly on online search by securing exclusive agreements for preinstalling its search app on devices. The government claims that this allowed Google to dominate its competitors and suppress competition.

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 conduct. The company will claim 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 simply 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.

Dig deeper. Google shares Chrome iOS search revenues with Apple

Why we care. Google’s big shift could have a major impact on the entire digital marketing industry. The DOJ’s case could lead to lower advertising costs if it can change Google’s stranglehold on search. More tech regulation could be more difficult to achieve if Google wins. As always, time will tell.

Dig deeper. US Justice Department again sues Google, wants to destroy its ad unit

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. Consider the following:

• In its lawsuit, the government claimed that the court might be able to dissolve the company because it was 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.

Dig deeper. Judge: There is no evidence that Google hurt competitors by limiting their search visibility

The post Google antitrust trial about to start: What’s on the line first appeared on Search Engineland.