Google Pays ‘Enormous’ Sums to Maintain Search-Engine Dominance, DOJ Says (2024)
Alphabet Inc.’s Google pays billions of dollars each year to Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and other telecom giants to illegally maintain its spot as the No. 1 search engine, the US Justice Department told a federal judge Thursday.
DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer didn’t disclose how much Google spends to be the default search engine on most browsers and all US mobile phones, but described the payments as “enormous numbers.”
Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the Internet by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze and rank websites based on their relevance to the search query.
spends more than $20 billion a year on such contracts. Justice Department lawyers have said the huge sum is indicative of how important it is for Google to make itself the default search engine and block competitors from getting a foothold.
The tech giant is accused of monopolizing the internet search market, sidelining competitors and harming consumers. The DOJ claims Google struck illegal deals, but the company argues it has the best search engine.
The government argues that Google's search engine monopoly allows it to charge artificially higher prices to advertisers, which eventually carry over to consumers. “Price increases should be bounded by competition,” Dahlquist said. “It should be the market deciding what the price increases are.”
The DOJ sued Google in 2020 for allegedly maintaining a monopoly in the search engine market, pushing out competitors like Microsoft, by pursuing agreements with device makers and web browsers to be their default search engine.
The Department of Justice and several U.S. states filed its lawsuit against Google in 2020, accusing the tech giant of building an illegal monopoly in the search engine and advertising markets, primarily through multi-billion dollar deals paid out to browser companies, like Apple and others.
Organization. Under the leadership of the Attorney General of the United States, the Justice Department is composed of more than 40 separate component organizations and more than 115,000 employees.
The Justice Department has accused Google of illegally abusing its power as a monopoly to control the search engine business — leading to competitors being sidelined and customers being shortchanged by getting a lower quality experience.
In opening statements, the Department of Justice painted Google as a monopolist that used its scale and resources, particularly through its exclusivity deals with device makers, to crowd out competitors.
Apple first agreed to use Google in the Safari browser in 2002 for free. But the companies later decided to share revenue made from search advertising. By May 2021, that translated to Google paying Apple more than $1 billion a month for its default status, prosecutors said in the filing.
That case is expected to go to trial in September. The department and eight states sued in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, saying Google acquired rivals through anticompetitive mergers and bullied publishers and advertisers into using the company's ad technology.
The DOJ alleges that Apple blocks “super” apps, suppresses mobile cloud streaming services, blocks cross-platform messaging apps, limits third-party digital wallets, and even limits how well third-party smartwatches work on its platforms.
The U.S. government accused Microsoft of illegally monopolizing the web browser market for Windows, primarily through the legal and technical restrictions it put on the abilities of PC manufacturers (OEMs) and users to uninstall Internet Explorer and use other programs such as Netscape and Java.
Google Agrees to Delete Users' 'Incognito' Browsing Data in Lawsuit Settlement. Google said it would delete millions of records of users' browsing activities as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit that alleged it tracked people without their knowledge. The case, filed in 2020, alleged the Alphabet Inc.
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