The U.S. Department of Justice argued in court on Thursday that had Google not heavily monopolized the search market, innovations such as ChatGPT by OpenAI would have been released much earlier than they were. Kenneth Dintzer, head lawyer for the Department of Justice in the antitrust case against the search engine, pointed out that the announcement of Microsoft’s incorporation of OpenAI’s tech into its Bing search engine was only days after Google said they would also release a conversational artificial intelligence product.
Evidence of Google’s monopolization of the search market was further revealed in their contracts with Apple and smartphone providers to be their default search engine, something with which the Justice Department took issue.
In response to these allegations, Google’s legal representative John Schmidtlein argued that the default search agreement that the company had possesses with Apple dated back to 2003 which does not limit various competitors and does not prove the monopoly. While Justice Department lawyer Dintzer countered that this exclusivity in contracts should have been eliminated once Google gained a monopoly. Not only that, but he suggested that the competition should have been increased by loosening the payers, so they could bid for access points on smartphones, as well as allowing companies like Mozilla and Apple to design their products differently to offer users other options.
Judge Amit Mehta is expected to rule on the two antitrust cases brought against Google this summer.
Google is an American multinational technology company, specialized in internet-related services, operating systems, and products. They specialize in advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Google operates in more than 40 countries and has its headquarters in Mountain View, California.
John Schmidtlein, Google’s attorney and U.S. Justice Department lawyer, is a partner of Ropes & Gray LLP’s Compliance & Investigations practice in Washington, D.C. He has experience in conducting corporate and financial fraud, corruption and money laundering investigations across various locations and industries. He is regularly asked to conduct and oversee multinational investigations, investigations into possible antitrust violations and advise companies and law enforcement on complex enforcement matters and legal strategies.
