On Witness Stand, Google CEO Challenges DOJ’s Proposed Remedies In Search Monopoly Case

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday called the government’s proposed remedies to its search monopoly “so far reaching, so extraordinary” as to amount to a “de facto divestiture” of Google’s core intellectual property, according to multiple reports from inside the court room.

“It makes it unviable to invest in R&D the way we have for the last two decades on Google Search,” Pichai said. “I think it will have many unintended consequences.”

Pichai was testifying on the first full day of the defense’s case in the remedies phase of the successful antitrust case brought against it by the Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general. The government wrapped up its case Tuesday afternoon.

The case is being heard by federal district judge Amit Mehta, who last year found Google acted illegally to maintain its search monopoly, such as by paying billions of dollars to mobile operators to make Google the default search engine on their platforms and devices.

Among DOJ’s proposed fixes is an order requiring Google share its search index and search query data with competitors. Were that to happen, Pichai said, “It would be trivial to reverse engineer and effectively build Google search from the outside,” removing any incentive for Google to continue to invest on search technology, Reuters reported.

Under questioning by lead defense attorney John Schmidtlein Pichai claimed Google spent $49 billion on R&D in search, AI, and other projects last year alone.

Read more: Judge Sets May Hearing to Weigh Antitrust Remedies Against Google

Pichai also took issue with the government’s proposal to force Google to spin off its Chrome web browser, which produces a large portion of the data used to power Google Search. Companies including Perplexity, Yahoo, and OpenAI testified they would be interested in acquiring Chrome if Google for forced to sell it, but Pichai called the proposal “unprecedented.”

Earlier, Chrome general manager Parisa Tabriz testified that Chrome owes much of its features and functionalities to its connection with other parts of the company. “Chrome today represents 17 years of collaboration between the Chrome people” and the rest of Google, she said, according to Bloomberg. “Trying to disentangle that is unprecedented.”

In addition to the specific remedies proposed by DOJ, the latest phase of the trial has also focused extensively on AI and the government’s insistence that, unless stopped, Google could extend its monopoly in search into AI as well. Under questioning by DOJ attorney Veronica Onyema, Pichai confirmed he is hopeful of concluding a deal with Apple to integrate Google Gemini AI tool in with Apple Intelligence. Though no deal has been reached, Pichai said he had discussed the possibility with Apple CEO Tim Cook last year and hopes they can finalize a deal sometime this year. Google already has a deal with Apple to make Google the default search engine on iPhones.

Regardless of how Judge Mehta rules on potential remedies, Google has said it intends to appeal his original ruling that it operates an illegal monopoly once the current phase of the trial is complete.