The Google antitrust trial has officially begun, which is regarded as the "battle for the soul of the Internet." The trial, which will last 10 weeks in Washington, D.C., will involve Google's dominance and allegations of wrongdoing against rivals.
This lawsuit is extremely iconic because it vividly demonstrates the U.S. Department of Justice’s fierce resistance to technology giants. This time, Google faces accusations that it uses its dominance of the search engine to squeeze out competitors and uses its advertising network to maintain its monopoly. The U.S. Department of Justice said that in 2019, Google accounted for more than 90% of the U.S. non-social media search engine market.
Legal representatives emphasized during the trial that Google's dominance is entirely determined by user choice. Users can choose to set search engines such as Bing as their default search engine, but Google is one of the most popular search engines chosen by users. This is not due to misconduct and condemns the incompetence of its competitors such as Bing. . Google has been able to maintain its monopoly in the advertising market because advertisers are accustomed to buying ads within ad networks.
One of the main challenges to Google in this trial is its mobilization of upstream and downstream partners in the industry to form a similar monopoly position in the advertising market. The U.S. Department of Justice stated in the complaint that part of Google’s shining point is that the company’s advertising network has driven down advertising costs on the Internet, and because Google’s search arrangements are more efficient and accurate, Google needs to pay advertisers more Less advertising costs.
The trial also scrutinized the role of partners Apple, AT&T, Facebook, Mozilla and Google. The U.S. Department of Justice said it will subpoena executives from Google and the five companies in preparation for their testimony.
During the trial, Google must face competitors from multiple fields, including Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, etc. If Google is accused of engaging in negative conduct specifically aimed at targeting competitors, it would indicate that Google does not comply with U.S. merger regulations and must correct its market behavior.
This is a very serious situation for Google, which may be subject to investigations, fines, and other forms of administrative penalties from other countries, or even punitive lawsuits. After the trial, the verdict will determine Google's future development direction and the implementation of its next strategic plan. If Google loses in this case, it will inevitably have a significant impact on the company.