Google illegally buys off tech giants to stay dominant in search, DOJ argues

Google pays billions of dollars to other major tech companies illegally to make itself the most popular search engine by default, the Department of Justice argued before a federal judge.

The DOJ and Google met for an initial hearing on Thursday to offer their first arguments in the DOJ’s antitrust suit against the tech giant. The suit won’t start until 2023, but the hearing acted as an initial opportunity for the two parties’ legal teams to instruct federal judge Amit Mehta on the technical aspects of the antitrust lawsuit. The arguments primarily focused on Google’s role in paying other hardware companies, such as Samsung and Apple, to make Google the default search engine in its apps.

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“Google invests billions in defaults, knowing people won’t change them,” argued DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer, according to Bloomberg. “They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot.” While Dintzer did not elaborate on the specifics of those investments, he described them as “enormous” and concerning.

Dintzer also claimed that Google reduced traffic to potentially competitive websites such as Yelp by filling up the search pages with tabs such as answer boxes and sponsored results.

Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, pressed back on Dintzer’s claim by arguing that people can easily swap search engines on their browsers and mobile devices. Schmidtlein also claimed that the company still had to compete with other companies such as TikTok, Meta, Amazon, and other websites despite its default agreements. “Google has to compete tirelessly on the search side and the ad side or people will take their dollars elsewhere,” the attorney argued.

The DOJ sued Google in 2020 for allegedly violating antitrust laws through its search and advertising practices. The scrutiny has increased in recent months, to the point that Google has considered reorganizing its internal structure in order to separate its ad business from other operations. However, the DOJ does not appear fazed by this, according to statements from the staff.

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The full trial has not been scheduled, although some of those involved expect a summary judgment addressing some of the DOJ’s allegations to arrive before the end of the year, according to Axios.