Google’s antitrust breakup trial: What to know

00:00 Josh Lipton

Google back in court, facing off the Department of Justice to prevent a breakup of its search empire. Yahoo! Finance’s Alexis Keenan joins us now with the very latest, Alexis.

00:11 Alexis Keenan

Hey, Josh, yeah. So this was the first day of the remedies phase of this trial, and it’s meant to restore competition in the search engine market. That’s where Google was held to have had an illegal monopoly. And then you just go back a week ago, not even a week ago, and Google was held to have had an illegal monopoly in the advertising technology market. But this search case here, the DOJ is asking for a judge to force Alphabet to divest its Chrome browser, to end contracts that put its search product in default placement across different devices, and also to block Google’s use of AI tools in order to preference itself. Now, the DOJ also wants the judge to consider the possibility of a divestment of Google’s Android operating system. And reports from inside the courtroom today say the DOJ was accusing Google of repeating the same tactics in AI that it made to get its search into a monopoly position and to hold on to that monopoly. The DOJ said that Google was paying to get its Gemini AI chatbot on Android devices this time around. The DOJ said it would also plan to call to testify, represented from OpenAI, to say that the company struggles to some extent with distribution of its chatbot and also to compete on some level with Google’s level of search query data. Now, Google for its part said that divestment of Chrome would break the browser. They say that the risk to divest Chrome because it is part of an ecosystem that functions with other Google products, that that would really have a risk of personal data being disclosed to the wrong sources, and also national security risks, Google says. They, on the other hand, they want the judge to let browsers continue to choose their own search engine and to have those contracts rebid on an annual basis. They’re also asking for the judge to let those OEMs that use Android be allowed to preload any search engine that they want. Now, as for AI, uh, the company says that it would really impede US’s competition with China in that market if it were to go ahead with these proposals. Um, one thing we’ve heard for one of the first times from Assistant AG Gail Slater Trump’s choice to lead the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. Before opening statements, she did talk about this AI dispute. She said, “The Trump administration has prioritized, prioritized policies that support and advance AI, but that nothing would advance AI faster than open and competitive marketplaces that are free from gatekeepers,” calling Google a gatekeeper here and monopolies. “The online search market,” she said, “has been frozen in place for decades.” And so, guys, no matter what happens here at the end of this search phase, it’s expected to last three weeks. We’re expecting a decision in this remedies phase from Judge Mehta by August. Uh, no matter what, if there’s any consequence to Google that hurts their bottom line, we would expect Google to appeal. The DOJ can for its part as well.

06:11 Josh Lipton

So buckle up, it’s going to be a long process. Alexis, thanks so much, appreciate it.