Why Is the Justice Dept. Suing Google?
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’s Safari browser or Mozilla’s Firefox, the agreement is akin to a maker of cereals paying supermarkets to stock its boxes at eye level.
The search giant has also repeatedly argued that it has numerous successful competitors in online search. The company points to companies like Amazon and TikTok as thriving competitors. Even though they do not operate general-purpose search engines, Google argues that they are rival destinations where consumers go to find products or content that bypasses Google entirely.
Google has also said that the government is using a flawed argument to target the company because of its popularity. The company believes it is successful because it makes the best search engine. Consumers have a choice to use other search engines, it argues, but choose Google because they find it most helpful.
What does the government need to prove to win its case?
The government has to show that Google has monopoly power over the areas of the economy at issue in the case. The government will try to convince the judge to take a relatively strict view of what a search engine is and to reject Google’s argument that e-commerce sites like Amazon and social media services like TikTok or Instagram are in the same market as Google’s search engine. The wider the market, the easier it is for Google to argue that it does not have monopoly power.