google antitrust trial

11Dec

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Technology

Google antitrust trial focused on Android app store payments to be handed off to jury to decide

[ad_1] A federal court jury is poised begin its deliberations in an antitrust trial focused on whether Google's efforts to profit from its app store for Android smartphones have been illegally gouging consumers and stifling innovation.Before the nine-person jury in San Francisco starts weighing the evidence Monday, the lawyers on the opposing sides of the trial will present their closing arguments in a three-year-old case filed by Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game. The four-week trial included testimony from both Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who sometimes seemed like a professor explaining complex topics while standing behind a lectern because of a health issue, and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, who painted himself as a video game lover on a mission to take down a greedy tec...

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai Grilled on Record-Keeping at Google Play Trial

14Nov

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Technology

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai Grilled on Record-Keeping at Google Play Trial

[ad_1] Alphabet Inc. Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai immediately faced aggressive questioning when he took the witness stand at an antitrust trial over the Google Play app store. A lawyer for Epic Games Inc. grilled Pichai in San Francisco federal court Tuesday over accusations that he has encouraged internal communications to be hidden from enforcers scrutinizing the company for antitrust violations. Pichai faced a similar attack over his company's records preservation practices when he testified in late October in a landmark Justice Department suit over allegations the company acted like a monopolist with its search business. Responding Tuesday to questions from Epic's attorney Lauren Moskowitz, Pichai said he marked some emails with the attorney-client privilege tag as he was i...

Google Walks Tightrope on AI in Search Antitrust Trial

1Nov

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Technology

Google Walks Tightrope on AI in Search Antitrust Trial

[ad_1] Google executives downplayed the company's artificial intelligence position during testimony at a landmark federal antitrust trial, saying the Alphabet Inc. company has tried to be slow and cautious because of the dangerous power of the technology. The Department of Justice has a different theory: That Google was way ahead in generative AI and chose not to release the technology sooner for fear of losing its monopoly in search. The fact that Google could move so quickly to debut its AI tools once Microsoft Corp. entered the race shows that the company was holding back innovation, the DOJ claims. To win the case, the DOJ needs to demonstrate some harm to consumers — and proving that Google intentionally delayed technological progress is one way the government could do it. Similar...

Google’s Pichai to Defend Search Dominance as Trial Pivots

31Oct

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Technology

Google’s Pichai to Defend Search Dominance as Trial Pivots

[ad_1] Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify Monday in the company's antitrust trial, where he will seek to rebut the US government's portrait of the search giant as a colossus wielding billions of dollars to unfairly smother competition.Pichai arrives after seven weeks of testimony that showed Alphabet Inc. pays as much as $26 billion a year for Google to be the default search engine on mobile phones, PCs and other devices. The Justice Department argues that Google knows that most people don't change their default settings even if other options are available and that the prime positioning thwarts rivals such as Microsoft Corp.'s Bing or DuckDuckGo. It also benefits Apple Inc., which earns billions of dollars for setting Google as the default on the Safari...

Google CEO gets grilling in US antitrust trial

31Oct

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Technology

Google CEO gets grilling in US antitrust trial

[ad_1] Google CEO Sundar Pichai faced a fierce grilling from a US antitrust lawyer on Monday as he pushed back against accusations that his company acted illegally to preserve the dominance of its world-leading search engine.At the heart of the case by the US Department of Justice is Google's massive revenue sharing deals in which iPhone maker Apple takes a big cut of Google ad revenue made from being the default search engine on Apple devices. Testimony has revealed that Google last year alone paid out a $26 billion to remain the default search engine on various smartphones and browsers, most of which went to Apple. Pichai began his testimony in the Washington courtroom by repeating the company's mission of making information "universally accessible and useful" to all."The mission is m...

Five things we learned at the US Google antitrust trial

19Oct

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Technology

Five things we learned at the US Google antitrust trial

[ad_1] US government lawyers rested their case on Tuesday in the landmark antitrust trial against Google after five weeks of testimony that saw some of big tech's most senior executives take the stand.At the heart of the case is Google's search engine and whether the company has acted illegally to preserve its overwhelming dominance. Here are five things we have learned so far at the trial: - Apple makes billions on Google -Apple's intricate relationship with Google was the trial's main source of intrigue, as the US government contends that it is by paying billions of dollars to the iPhone maker every year that Google is able to maintain its monopoly.Exactly how much has yet to be made public, but according to some estimates mentioned in evidence, every year Google pays a total of ten b...

What Google’s antitrust trial means for your search habits

17Oct

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Technology

What Google’s antitrust trial means for your search habits

[ad_1] If government regulators prevail against Google in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century, it's likely to unleash drastic changes that will undermine the dominance of a search engine that defines the internet for billions of people.As the 10-week trial probing Google's business practices nears its midway point, it's still too early to tell if U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta will side with the Justice Department and try to handcuff one of the world's most dominant tech companies. If Mehta rules that Google has been running an illegal monopoly in search, the punishment could open up new online avenues for consumers and businesses to explore in pursuit of information, entertainment and commerce. “The judge can compel Google to open the floodgates so more startups and t...

Five things to know about the Google antitrust trial as it hits halfway mark

15Oct

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Technology

Five things to know about the Google antitrust trial as it hits halfway mark

[ad_1] The U.S. government is near the halfway mark in its court battle with Alphabet's Google, which it has accused of breaking antitrust law with the tactics it used to dominate online search and some aspects of advertising. In the trial that started on Sept. 12 and is scheduled to go to about mid-November, the Justice Department accused Google of manipulating online auctions - a multibillion dollar industry dominated by Google - with these formulas to favor its own bottom line. Here are five important points raised so far during the trial: GOOGLE PAYS BILLIONS TO PROTECT ITS SEARCH MONOPOLYWitnesses from Verizon, Android maker Samsung and Google itself testified about the company's estimated $10 billion in annual payments to ensure that its search is the default on smartphones and ...

What is Microsoft’s grouse against Google that led to Satya Nadella’s explosive testimony at the trial?

3Oct

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Technology

What is Microsoft’s grouse against Google that led to Satya Nadella’s explosive testimony at the trial?

[ad_1] Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was invited to testify as a witness for the US government against Google in a massive antitrust trial. The case will establish whether Google illegally created market dominance to push out rivals from existing and operating in the same way. Interestingly, Microsoft is one of the companies that also claims to be affected by Google's alleged monopolistic practices that have kept it out of the search engine business. But what really is Microsoft's grouse against Google? Turns out, it goes a long way back.Microsoft's rivalry with GoogleToday, Google dominates the search engine segment emphatically. However, it did not really get the early bird treatment when it comes to the space. In fact, Google had competition in this space right from the start. The comp...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says unfair practices by Google led to its dominance as a search engine

3Oct

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Technology

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says unfair practices by Google led to its dominance as a search engine

[ad_1] Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Monday that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his company's rival program, Bing.Nadella testified in a packed Washington, D.C., courtroom as part of the government's landmark antitrust trial against Google's parent company, Alphabet. The Justice Department alleges Google has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers, allegations that echo a similar case brought against Microsoft in the late 1990s. Nadella said Google's dominance was due to agreements that made it the default browser on smartphones and computers. He downplayed the idea that artificial intelligence or more niche search engines like Ama...