There’s a reason that “Googling” has become the word for searching for something on the Internet, a Department of Justice lawyer told a judge to start the biggest U.S. antitrust trial this century.
It’s because the company behind the search engine used ironclad deals with smartphone makers and other tech companies to squeeze out rivals, using its monopoly power to dominate the search market and pull in billions in revenue as a result, lead Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dinzer said Tuesday.
Google has used agreements where it pays to be the default search provider on smartphones from Apple and other companies, and on browsers like Mozilla’s Firefox, as part of a powerful cycle that entrenches the company’s dominance in search, Dinzer argued as the trial opened Tuesday in federal court in Washington.