[Text/Watchman Network Liu Chenghui] On April 21 local time, a court hearing for the antitrust case against Google was held in Washington, D.C., USA. The U.S. Federal Court will review the antitrust remedy plan proposed by the Department of Justice - splitting Google's Chrome browser from the Android operating system, while Google is defending itself on the grounds of "maintaining American technological innovation leadership and national security" and "keeping competitive advantages over China."

According to CNBC's report on April 21, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, stated in a blog post that day that with the rapid intensification of global dominance competition in the artificial intelligence field, such measures are not in the best interest of the United States.

To begin with, Mulholland mentioned DeepSeek, an emerging artificial intelligence competitor from China, in her article.

Google may become the first company in decades to be split up according to a court order. The Wall Street Journal

In her article, she claimed that the Department of Justice's proposal would "seriously constrain our approach to developing artificial intelligence and allow a committee appointed by the government to regulate the design and development of our products. This will hinder American innovation at a critical moment."

She stated, "We are in the midst of intense global competition with China for leadership in next-generation technology, and Google is at the forefront of American companies achieving scientific and technological breakthroughs."

"During the hearing, we will demonstrate that the unprecedented proposal from the U.S. Department of Justice far exceeds the scope of the court's ruling and will harm American consumers, the economy, and technological leadership," Mulholland said. The Department of Justice's proposal for Google to open its data to other companies not only brings cybersecurity and even national security risks but also increases device costs.

The Department of Justice said that in the search field, "Google's agreements continue to shield its monopoly position from impact." The Department of Justice plans to have Nick Turley, the product director of ChatGPT, and Dmitry Shevelenko, the chief business officer of AI company Perplexity, attend the hearing.

In a blog post on April 21, Shevelenko stated, "Remedial measures should not involve a breakup; instead, consumers should have more choices."

The company said that mobile phone manufacturers should be able to provide their customers with various search options without worrying about economic penalties or access restrictions.

He added, "Consumers should receive the best products, not just those with the most embedded fees. This is the only solution that ensures consumer choice determines the winner."

The three-week hearing will end on May 9, and it is expected that District Judge Amit Mehta will make a ruling in August, after which Google may appeal.

For Google, this trial will determine the outcome of the entire antitrust case.

Last August, the U.S. court ruled that Google illegally monopolized the online search and search text advertising markets. This ruling was seen as the first major victory for U.S. authorities in challenging the market dominance of large tech companies.

In his ruling at that time, Mehta pointed out that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone to ensure it remained the default search engine for smartphones and browsers and maintained its dominant market position.

Bloomberg earlier cited sources saying that, in the view of the Department of Justice, Google's monopoly had a significant impact on the search engine market landscape, particularly unfairly harming competitors. Before Google established its monopoly position, many startups were trying to create better search products to challenge Google, but these small businesses could never afford the high marketing costs to compete with Google for channels.

On October 8 last year, the Department of Justice stated in a court filing that it was considering breaking up Google as a remedy for the antitrust case to alleviate the damage caused by Google's monopoly in the online search market. According to the 32-page court filing submitted by the Department of Justice, the agency is "considering taking behavioral and structural remedies" to prevent Google from using products like the Chrome browser, Play app store, and Android operating system to gain advantages over competitors or new entrants in Google Search and its related products and features.

Once this measure is finally implemented, it will be another major breakup case executed by U.S. antitrust agencies in the past 40 years.

Most of America's famous breakup cases occurred during the early 20th-century antitrust era when Standard Oil, American Tobacco Company, and a railroad trust called Northern Securities were broken up.

The last major breakup case occurred in 1984, when American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), which controlled long-distance and local telephone services and monopolized the telephone equipment market, was broken up. At that time, this telecommunications company did not wait for the judge's decision but negotiated a breakup agreement with the Department of Justice.

This article is an exclusive contribution from Watchman Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7495938441943712267/

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