Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, is set to give testimony on Monday in an antitrust battle pertiaing to Google's search dominance and some segments of search advertising, news agency Reuters has reported. The Google's top executive, will participate in the trial, where he is expected to discuss the tech giant's efforts to maintain search competitiveness, particularly with the rise of smartphones and advancements in search advertising.
During cross-examination, representatives from the government are likely to inquire about the significant annual payments made by the tech behemoth to secure Google search as the default on smartphones, including Apple iPhones.
Google is at the centre of a legal battle initiated by the US Department of Justice and 37 states, with allegations of abusing its dominant position in the search engine industry. The lawsuit says that Google's tactics involve hefty payments, pre-installation agreements, and market manipulation.
Earlier, Google rival Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella gave testimony at a Washington DC courtroom and pointed to Google's alleged unfair trade practices. He alleged that Google makes arrangements with smartphone manufacturers, indulges in unfair trade practices and thwarts smaller competitors. Additionally, he added that Apple "leverages Microsoft's Bing" as a bargaining tool to increase the payments it receives from Google.
According to estimates presented during the trial, earlier Google was apprently paying Apple somewhere between $10 billion and $20 billion for this privilege. However, a recent report by The New York Times disclosed that Google disbursed around $18 billion to Apple in 2021 for this deal.
Beyond the Apple arrangement, Google is said to have entered similar agreements with Samsung and Mozilla. These contractual agreements have been under scrutiny in the ongoing antitrust trial, as the US Justice Department (DOJ) alleges that the tech giant illegitimately fortified its monopoly in online search by financially incentivising phone makers and web browsers to adopt Google as the default search engine, pre-installing its services on Android devices, and exploiting its market clout to thwart competition.
However, Google has argued the revenue share agreements are legal and that it has invested to keep its search and advertising businesses competitive, the Reuters report added. The tech behemoth has also argued that if people are dissatisfied with defaults that they can, and do, switch to another search provider.