Antitrust case against Google: Ex-employee questioned on deals
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Washington: The United States Justice Department on Wednesday pressed ahead with its antitrust case against search engine giant Google, questioning the company’s former employee about deals he helped negotiate with phone companies.
The Justice Department filed its lawsuit against the company nearly three years ago, alleging Google has used its internet search dominance to gain an unfair advantage against competitors.
Chris Barton, who worked for Google from 2004 to 2011, testified that he made it a priority to negotiate for the company to be the default search engine on mobile devices. In exchange, phone service providers or manufacturers were offered a share of revenue generated when users clicked on ads. Barton also said that Google wasn't the only search engine seeking default status with phone companies.
Google stated that it dominates the internet search market because its product is better than the competitors.
Even when it holds the default spot on smartphones and other devices, Google argued that users can switch to rival search engines with a couple of clicks.
In a 2011 email exchange, Google executives noted that AT and T chose Yahoo and Verizon to go with Microsoft's Bing as its search engine.
“I faced a challenge because mobile carriers became fixed on revenue share percentage,'' Barton said.
To counter the competition, Barton tried to persuade potential partners that Google's high-quality searches would generate more clicks, and therefore more advertising revenue, even if the carriers were paid a nominally lower percentage.
According to the Lawsuit, Google has rigged the market in its favour by locking in its search engine as the one users see first on their devices, shutting out the competition and smothering innovation.
The trial, which began on Tuesday, is expected to last 10 weeks.
US District Judge Amit Mehta likely won't issue a ruling until early next year. If he decides Google broke the law, another trial will decide what steps should be taken to rein in the Mountain View, California-based company.
Top executives at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc., as well as those from other powerful technology companies, are expected to testify. Among them is likely to be Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who succeeded Google co-founder Larry Page four years ago.
Court documents also suggest that Eddy Cue, a high-ranking Apple executive, might be called to the stand.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department also questioned Google chief economist Hal Varian for a second day about the way the company uses the massive amounts of data generated by user clicks to improve future searches and entrench its advantage over rivals.
With inputs from PTI