ALBAWABA – The United States and other countries have filed a lawsuit against Google, the largest search engine on the internet, news agencies reported last week.
The lawsuit against Google began on September 12, and the charges entail claims that the company exploited its influence in the market to isolate companies and consumers to prevent competition.
Arabian Business reported that the search engine would sideline people and companies it does not want to surface on the first pages, or at all, in some cases, according to the lawsuit.
Google has successfully maintained dominance over more than 90 percent of all interest searches through partnerships with other players in the tech field. Such practices included confidentiality agreements with Apple and systematic exclusion of competitors, according to Arabian Business.
Bloomberg and Reuters also reported on the lawsuit, highlighting that the trial could reshape the internet in the coming future.
The lawsuit against Google also claimed the company sought deals to secure an advantageous strong installation with smartphone companies to prevent competition - Shutterstock
Google is paying millions – including $93 million to the state of California – to settle lawsuits on charges of misleading users by claiming that it does not collect location information about them, which turned out later that they do.
The fine imposed on Google in the settlement amounts to only 0.5 percent of the company’s net income of $18 billion in the second quarter of 2023, news agencies reported.
US prosecutors are pushing the argument that Google sought deals with smartphone companies to win strong default installation, an automatic mode that favors Google in smartphones to control search.
The government says Google, a unit of Alphabet, pays $10 billion a year to wireless carriers like AT&T, hardware makers like Apple and browser makers like Mozilla to fend off competitors and keep its search engine market share near 90 percent.
The lawsuit against Google also claimed the company took illegal steps to protect communications related to payments. The government called witnesses on Tuesday and Wednesday to show that Google, since the mid-2000s, sought to attract a large number of searches by winning the automatic mode status on mobile devices.
The government claims that Google's influence in search helped the company build monopolies in the online search advertising market so Google makes money through advertising.
