The U.S. government is being accused by Google of attempting to penalize the company due to its superior success over rival firms.

These remarks were made in a post-trial brief that was unsealed and submitted to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., as part of an ongoing legal dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ has previously alleged that Google illegally monopolized the search engine market.

In the legal filing, Google maintained that its status as the top global search engine is a result of its “relentless hard work,” and argued that a loss in this antitrust case would undermine existing U.S. antitrust laws.

Google’s stance. In the filing, Google stated:

• “The evidence clearly shows that Google is the highest-quality and most popular search engine in the United States, with the greatest monetization potential for search advertising…Yet the Plaintiffs seek to penalize Google and place it at a disadvantage when competing for these revenue agreements.”
• “Why? To support weaker competitors in the general search engine space, hoping this will give them more motivation and opportunity to enhance their search quality — despite years of prior attempts that have failed to yield results.”
• “Such an outcome goes against U.S. antitrust principles. Penalizing a successful firm that has outperformed its rivals and benefited consumers ultimately hurts competition, not strengthens it.”

Search Ads 360 discussion. Google also responded to claims from the Colorado Plaintiffs concerning the alleged unfair handling of SA360 (Search Ads 360), asserting that it has no obligation to collaborate with Microsoft on SA360 features. Google argued that its behavior aligns with industry norms and claimed the Colorado Plaintiffs could not prove any harm to competitors. The brief further noted:

• “Sanctioning Google for its actions here would actually hinder competition by reducing Google’s incentive to develop and improve its cross-platform SA360 tool in ways that best meet advertiser needs.”

What is Search Ads 360? SA360 is a platform designed for managing large-scale search marketing campaigns across various search engines. It streamlines ad and keyword management and facilitates performance analysis. Additionally, SA360 supports automated bidding through strategic bid settings.

DOJ’s position. The DOJ has accused Google of signing lucrative contracts with phone manufacturers and web browser providers to restrict competition from other search engines such as Microsoft’s Bing. The DOJ is expected to file its own response shortly.

Next steps in the case. Final arguments for the multi-week trial held last year are anticipated in May.

Why this matters. Should the U.S. Government prevail, Google may no longer be the default search engine on computers, laptops, or mobile devices. This could open the door for competitors like Microsoft and Yahoo to gain prominence as leading search engines, potentially altering how users search online.

Further reading. For more details, you can read Google’s full post-trial brief.

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