Google CEO Sundar Pichai told a federal judge on Wednesday that the government's proposal to dissolve the company would hinder the business as it aimed to avoid dramatic changes to fix illegal monopolies in online searches.
Judge Amit P. Meta, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, ruled last year that Google broke the law to maintain its search monopoly. This month he convened a hearing to determine what is known as a remedy in place to deal with illegal activities.
As the company's second witness, Pichai was called to argue that government aggressive solutions should be avoided, including selling Google's popular Chrome web browser and forcing them to share data with rivals. Pichai said the government's proposal would help companies reduce investment in new technology if they need to share profits with their competitors at a minimum fee.
“I don't think that all the bailout combinations can do what we invest in R&D for the past 30 years and do what we're doing to innovate and continue building Google search,” he said, referring to research and development.
Pichai is the best witness expected to testify at a three-week landmark hearing. The technology industry is trapped in the competition to develop internet products powered by artificial intelligence, and Google's new restrictions on business could recharge the efforts of its rivals and hinder itself.
Google's search case is also the first major test of the US government's efforts to curb the massive power of commercial, communication and information online. A federal judge in Virginia determined this month that Google is also the monopoly of several online advertising technologies.
The Federal Trade Commission has squared meta in a trial over whether the Instagram and Whatsapp acquisitions illegally robbed their early competitors. Additional federal antitrust lawsuits against Apple and Amazon are expected to go to trial in the coming years.
The Justice Department filed a Google search lawsuit in 2020 during President Trump's first term.
Government lawyers claimed at the 2023 trial that Google had locked out other search engines by paying companies like Apple, Samsung and Mozilla to businesses that appear automatically on web browsers and smartphones. Testimony at the time said the company paid $26.3 billion in 2021 as part of these transactions.
Judge Mehta opposed the company in August. Last week he held a three-week hearing to determine the relief package.
The Department of Justice's proposals are broad. The government has argued that Google needs to sell Chrome. This is because user queries are automatically sent to your company's search engine.
Pichai's testimony, which lasted about 90 minutes, said the company invested heavily in chrome and was the perfect way to ensure that the app is protected from cyberattacks. Pichai, who helped develop Chrome, was bristled when government lawyers questioned whether future owners of browsers could predict how cybersecurity would be handled.
“I think I can talk about it given my deep knowledge of space and the general understanding of the capabilities and commitments of other companies being about web security,” he said.
The government also hopes Google will share search results with its rivals. Under the suggestion, other search engines will be able to access data about the searches Google users are creating and the websites they were clicking on.
Pichai called for forced data sharing that “de factoly mandates” the company's intellectual property, “anyone completely reverse engineering, end-to-end, and all aspects of the technology stack.”
Google's proposal is narrower. He said they should be allowed to continue paying other companies for search engines to get prime placements. However, some of these transactions should be uploaded for renegotiation every year, and smartphone makers said they should have more freedom when deciding which Google apps to install on their devices.
Judge Mehta asked Pichai how other search engines could compete with Google.
“We can hardly think of the exception that 'the best product wins',” Pichai later added.
