Sept. 12, 2023, 8:51 a.m. ET
Credit…John Taggart for The New York Times
A federal judge will start hearing claims Tuesday from the Justice Department and a group of states that Google abused its power as a monopoly over online search services. The trial is expected to take more than two months, after which the judge will decide whether Google acted illegally — and if so, what to do about it.
Google’s massively successful search tool has turned it into a giant business spanning advertising, cloud computing and the online video powerhouse YouTube. A ruling against it could limit the way Google can compete in the marketplace and reshuffle power in Silicon Valley.
The case is also a test for governments that say tech giants like Google have too much influence over our online lives. The nation’s antitrust laws were first written more than a century ago, and this trial will show whether they can be used to rein in the fast-moving tech industry.
What is Google accused of doing?
The Justice Department says Google, which controls roughly 90 percent of the global search market, illegally used partnerships with other companies to shut out rivals.
Thanks to agreements worth billions of dollars with companies like Apple, Samsung and Mozilla, Google has been the default search engine when billions of web users open a browser on their phones, tablets and personal computers. The government says that has prevented other search engines like Microsoft Bing and DuckDuckGo from accumulating a meaningful share of the market.
The Justice Department also claims Google’s practice of preloading its services on devices that use its Android software illegally helped the internet company maintain a monopoly.
What does Google say?
Google says that its business practices are legal and commonplace, and that when it pays to appear on Apple