Google CEO Sundar Pichai to testify in US antitrust trial
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is scheduled to testify on Monday in the government of the United States over Google’s unprecedented dominance of search and specific aspects of search advertising.
Pichai, who is being summoned as a witness for Google, will probably be questioned about the company’s investments in search advertising innovation as well as efforts to maintain the dominance of its online search engine, particularly since smartphones have taken over.
It has maintained that users can change to a different search engine if they are unhappy with the default search engines. However, under cross-examination, the government will probably also question the firm why it spends billions of dollars a year to ensure that devices default to Google search.
Reuters reported that the government claims that, to maintain its dominant position in the search industry, Google, which controls about 90% of it, pays wireless carriers like AT&T (T.N) and smartphone manufacturers like Apple (AAPL.O) an estimated $10 billion a year in illegal fees to set their products’ default search engine.
Because of its dominance in search, the search engine is a significant player in the lucrative advertising sector, which is its primary source of income.
The popular search engine maintains that its revenue-sharing arrangements are lawful and that it has made significant investments to strengthen the competitiveness of its search and advertising businesses.
