US DOJ says Google pays $10B yearly to maintain monopoly - report
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The U.S. Department of Justice said that Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) unit Google pays more than $10B a year to maintain its position as the default search engine on internet browsers and mobile devices, thereby curbing competition, Bloomberg News reported.
The remarks were made at the start of a high-stakes antitrust trial in Washington on Tuesday.
Kenneth Dintzer, a government lawyer, said Google became a monopoly by at least 2010 and today controls over 89% of the online search market. "The company pays billions for defaults because they are uniquely powerful," Dintzer added.
The monopolization trial is the first in about 20 years that has pitted the federal government against a US technology company.
The Justice Department and 52 attorneys general from states and US territories alleged that Google illegally maintained its monopoly by paying billions to technology competitors, smartphone manufacturers and wireless providers in return for being set as the preselected option or default on mobile phones and web browsers, the report added.
Google's attorneys deny the government's claims and will present their opening statements later Tuesday.
This first phase of the case will evaluate if Google has illegally monopolized the online search market. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the trial, is expected to issue a decision next year on whether Google violated the law.
If the DOJ wins, it could seek remedies at the second phase of the trial to break off the company's search business from other products, such as Android and Google Maps, which would mark the biggest forced breakup of a U.S. company since AT&T was dismantled in 1984, the report noted.
Google has faced several probes related to the same conduct including three cases in the EU, in which the company has seen more than â¬8B ($8.6B) in fines, for violations of dominance on its mobile operating system, its search business and its display advertising operations, according to the report.

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