What To Expect From Google’s Antitrust Remedies Trial Involving Search

Google and the federal government will return to federal court on Monday to determine what changes the company must make after a judge found last year that the tech giant illegally monopolized online search.

The high-stakes remedies trial is set to once again feature testimony from a lineup of Google executives and their c-suite rivals at competitor companies, as the court weighs whether structural changes, including a potential break-up of the company, are necessary.

Here are some answers to your likely questions about the antitrust proceedings, including what remedies the Justice Department is pushing and what Google is proposing in response.

Wait, this is yet another trial?

Yes. US Judge Amit P. Mehta of the District of Columbia in August ruled that Google was a “monopolist” that illegally maintained its power through “exclusive distribution agreements” and engaging in other anti-competitive practices to entrench the dominance of its search engine product.

But the decision left unresolved how Google would need to address its monopoly, and in September Mehta said a remedies trial would begin in March or April. During the trial, each side will argue for what changes they think are needed to address the court’s findings.

(After losing a separate case Thursday where a federal judge deemed Google to be a monopolist in the ad tech market, the giant is poised to soon face another remedies trial later this year or next.)

How long will this one last?

The trial will run from Monday, April 21, to Friday, May 9.

That is significantly shorter than the initial trial, which began in September 2023 and spanned over 10 weeks.

Who is set to testify?

The DOJ is expected to call leaders from several Google competitors to testify, including DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg; Brian Provost, SVP and GM for Yahoo Search; Michael Schechter, VP of Growth for Microsoft’s Bing; and Nick Turley, OpenAI’s Head of Product for ChatGPT. They are also set to call expert witnesses from Johns Hopkins, the University of Virginia, and Harvard University, as well as several Google product officials.

Google is slated to call several of its top business leaders, including CEO Sundar Pichai, VP of Search Elizabeth Hamon Reid, President of the Android Ecosystem Sameer Samat, and VP of Engineering and GM for Chrome Parisa Tabriz. The company will also call executives from Apple, Verizon, and Mozilla, as well as expert witnesses from several universities.

What remedies is the Justice Department pushing for?

The DOJ’s most significant proposal is for Google to spin off its Chrome web browser, which it has called “a critical distribution point” for its search engine. The DOJ argued that it would help prevent Google from favoring its own products, a practice known as self-preferencing.

The federal government is also urging the court to prohibit Google from making payments to third parties, such as Apple and Mozilla, to make its search engine the default on products such as browsers or operating systems like iOS, or from bundling or tying its search engine with other Google products, such as Android.

The DOJ’s proposed judgment leaves open the possibility that Google could be forced to spin off its Android operating system, too, if the other proposed remedies “are not effective in preventing Google from improperly leveraging its control of the Android ecosystem to its advantage, or if Google attempts to circumvent the remedy package.”

To remedy Google’s anticompetitive accumulation of user data across search and its other services, the DOJ is also proposing to “require Google to share data to offset the scale disadvantage that its unlawful conduct has created.”

While the DOJ during the Biden administration initially pushed for the government to require Google to divest from any AI investments, under the Trump administration, the agency has amended that portion to only require “prior notification for future investments.”

What remedies is Google proposing?

Google has rebuffed the DOJ’s call to sell off Chrome and said that web browser providers like Apple and Mozilla “should continue to have the freedom to do deals with whatever search engine they think is best for their users.”

Its proposed remedies focus more narrowly on those deals.

Google has argued that those arrangements should instead have more “flexibility” and be loosened to allow browser companies to enter into distribution agreements with multiple search providers, as well as to be able to change those deals every 12 months.

With regards to Android contracts, Google has likewise pushed for device makers to be given “additional flexibility in preloading multiple search engines” on their products, which the company said would give competitors like Microsoft “more chances to bid for placement.”

When will the case be decided?

Judge Mehta has said he plans to issue a decision on remedies by August.

Google has said it plans to appeal the initial monopolization decision, but is required to go through the remedies phase before doing so.

Note: Tech Policy Press was a recipient of a 2024 charitable donation from DuckDuckGo, a company mentioned in this article.