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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Bloomberg reporter Leah Nylen then stood up from the gallery, prompting Judge Mehta to ask who she was and why she was standing up. She identified herself as a Bloomberg reporter and said the posted exhibits provided important public access to the trial,

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Google’s witness just let leak that it shares 36% of its search revenue with Apple. Probably the biggest slip of the entire trial.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

and she wanted an opportunity to get a lawyer in the courtroom if the court was considering not allowing them.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Dramatic moment at the end of court today in #USvGoogle . During an argument over the admission of an exhibit, Google pointed out that DOJ was publicly posting admitted exhibits on its website. Judge Mehta said he didn’t know DOJ was doing this. (cont.)

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Judge Mehta said he wasn’t necessarily opposed to them being posted and that they were a part of the public record as long as they were submitted. For now, it seems like he’s leaving it to the parties to work out.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

This is the site where DOJ had been posting the trial exhibits: . It seems like they’ve already taken down the exhibits they had previously posted.

U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020]

www.justice.gov

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ suggested providing the exhibits it wants to post to Google 24 hours before they went up. It remains unclear if this is the practice they will adopt.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Judge Mehta just ruled against redacting transcripts of inadvertently disclosed information (presumably the 36% Google-Apple revenue share figure) finding a lack of competitive harm. Makes you wonder why it was deemed confidential in the first place. #USvGoogle 🤷‍♂️

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Google’s cross-examination of Google ad executive Jerry Dischler has focused on the ways Google tries to bring value to both users and advertisers in its search ads. At one point Dischler said: “We believe it is actually a worse user experience to not have ads on the page.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ apologized for posting the exhibits without letting Judge Mehta know, and said they would would take the exhibits down until they reached a resolution with Google and the court.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Here’s what I have to report on today from #USvGoogle today — although we got less than two hours of open court testimony. Court started in a closed session with Google Finance VP Mike Roszak on the stand. Court didn’t re-open to the public until after lunch.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Why does Google pay $26.3 billion per year to put its search engine on phones, browsers, and wireless carriers? Google says they're just promoting their product. But the government says it's about something else: User data. And Google knows a LOT about you. /🧵

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Murphy argues rival search engines exert competitive pressure on Google, even if they can't win default status. A telling Q from Judge Mehta to Murphy: “If competitors are able to influence price but not ultimately win the competition, is that really a competitive market?” /fin

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Good morning from the final day of #USvGoogle . The lone, final witness today is MIT economist Michael Whinston, who has previously testified twice in this hearing. Let's celebrate 10 weeks by live tweeting as much as we can! /🧵

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

DOJ also displayed the top 20 search queries ordered by revenue that Google earned for a week in 2018. The actual revenue amounts were redacted. Here’s what the top of that list looked like: 1) iPhone 8 2) iPhone 8 plus 3) auto insurance 4) car insurance 5) cheap flights

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ walked Lehman through a number of slide decks he had made during his time at Google. One was titled “Google is Magical”, another was titled “Life of a Click.” The general theme of DOJ’s questioning seemed to be that user data was a critical component of Google’s “magic.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

This is the exhibit from #USvGoogle that sparked the initial dispute over the DOJ’s public posting of exhibits. Still waiting to see the unsealed testimony for context, but it was presented during DOJ’s examination of Google VP of Finance Mike Roszak.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

There’s really been a noticeable shift in Judge Mehta’s attitude towards closing court. Today he was actively pushing the lawyers to do more of their questions in public. And he wants to unseal closed-session testimony even though DOJ never filed a motion for him to do this.

Leah AntiTrustButVer1fy Nylen

@leah_nylen

10 months

Judge Amit Mehta told Microsoft and the lawyers in the case that he wants as much of Nadella's testimony to be public as possible (yay!)

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

The Capitol Forum has started posting all of the transcripts from #USvGoogle :

US v Google Antitrust Trial Transcripts I The Capitol Forum

View transcripts from the monopoly trial of US v Google, a major tech antitrust case focused on abuse of power in the search engine business.

thecapitolforum.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Judge Mehta ended up siding with DOJ on both of these issues — one of several wins for the DOJ/States today during their crosses of Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan. The biggest news from today: in 2021, Google paid ~$26.3 billion dollars to partners like Apple, Samsung, etc.

Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

to make public the 20 search queries Google makes the most revenue off of as well as Google’s traffic acquisition costs related to search (the total amount of money Google paid to partners in search distribution revenue shares).

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

One other powerful nugget that DOJ elicited during this exchange: the amount of money Google spent for R&D on search in 2021 was “many times less” than the $26.3 billion it spent in traffic acquisition costs to secure default status on multiple search distributors.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ also asked Lehman about a slide on “Sensitive Topics” that instructed employees to “not discuss the use of clicks in search…” Lehman testified that everyone knows Google uses user data in search but

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Apple executive Eddy Cue faced about an hour of direct-examination in open court from the DOJ this morning. Now they are back in closed session — I would guess for most of the rest of the day — but here are some highlights from Cue’s testimony: Cue confirmed he was the lead

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Day 16 of #USvGoogle comes to a close with Judge Mehta announcing that he would be unsealing much of the closed-session testimony from DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg and Apple executive John Giannandrea. Judge Mehta said he did a line-by-line reading of the transcripts

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

DOJ posted a number of the exhibits it used during its cross-examination of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Here are some of the exhibits DOJ focused on in court. Google’s 2005 letter to Microsoft re: Internet Explorer’s bundling of search:

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Judge Mehta never addressed the exhibits being publicly posted on DOJ’s website — so as of now, we don’t have any clear resolution on that. That means we also don’t know what is in this apparently “embarrassing” document for Google.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

that “we try to avoid confirming that we use user data in the ranking of search results.” I didn’t get great notes on this, but I think the reason had something to do with not wanting people to think that SEO could be used to manipulate search results.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

We're now looking at a 2011 email from Chris Barton regarding the importance of Google getting defaults: "Without the exclusivity, we are not getting anything. Without an exclusive search deal, a large carrier can and will ship alternatives to Google." Murphy is getting upset.

Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Good morning. Day 40. We're back with DOJ's cross exam of Chicago School economist Kevin Murphy. First fact: In Apple's 2012 proposal to Google, Apple proposed setting the Google default as an *option* alternative to allowing users to choose their on default search provider. /

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

This morning, lawyers for The New York Times filed a motion seeking public access to admitted trial exhibits in #USvGoogle that have yet to be publicly posted. The motion acknowledged that “the Court has taken steps to make the trial more option,” but argued that “in several

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Judge Mehta said he didn’t want to stop the trial and asked if he could declare the DOJ attorneys “essential”. Dintzer said he thinks they will have to be deemed essential if their motion is denied. So if it’s up to Judge Mehta, the trial will continue through the shutdown.

Khushita Vasant

@KhushitaVasant

10 months

DOJ lawyer Kenneth Dintzer just told @Google search trial judge Amit Mehta that they will have to ask the court to stay the historic #monopoly trial if/when a government shutdown takes place. @JusticeATR The total trial time set originally is 10 weeks, ending mid-November.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Here’s my write-up from the first day of action!

Opening Act: The stakes of the Google trial

Both sides agree the future of the internet is at stake. They disagreed about everything else.

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

My last article for Big Tech on Trial with @matthewstoller looking back on the first 9 weeks of the #USvGoogle trial — “Is Google’s Reckoning Finally Here?” @LeeHepner will continue covering the finals days of trial on the Big Tech on Trial Substack!

Is Google’s Reckoning Finally Here?

The first big antitrust trial of this century is nearing its end. Looking back on the evidence we've seen — and ahead to Judge Mehta's huge task.

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

On Day 39 of the Google Search trial, one of the most guarded numbers got leaked, and the Chicago School reared its head. From @LeeHepner .

Google shares 36% of its revenue with Apple

Welcome to Big Tech on Trial.

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Long day of court just wrapped in #USvGoogle with Judge Mehta hearing argument on the motion filed by The New York Times this morning. A number of issues were discussed but the biggest question the court still seems to be considering is whether to require the parties to

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

On Day 12 of #USvGoogle , Microsoft executive Jon Tinter testified that Microsoft’s efforts to obtain a default search engine agreement with Apple included offers to share in excess of 100% of revenue/gross profit. Microsoft was willing to take a multi-billion dollar loss in the

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

In #USvGoogle , DOJ has just called Google’s VP and GM of Ads Team Jerry Dischler. Before beginning his examination, DOJ’s lawyer argued the redactions in this slide from DOJ’s opening statement presentation should be made public.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Some highlights/quotes from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s testimony in #USvGoogle this morning. He will re-take the stand after lunch for additional cross examination from Google in the afternoon. (Quotes are from handwritten notes so may not be 100% verbatim.)

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

My write-up on Day 2 of #USvGoogle is up!

Big Tech on Trial

Daily coverage from the Google antitrust trial. Click to read Big Tech on Trial, a Substack publication with thousands of subscribers.

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

DOJ re-called economist Michael Whinston to continue his expert testimony today. Whinston added three high-level opinions to his earlier testimony in the case about relevant markets and Google’s monopoly power: 1) Google’s search distribution contracts give it exclusive

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Most of the Google trial will not be audio-streamed outside of the courthouse. But the opening states will be. If you’re interested in listening, there’s a phone number you can call for dial-in access. Opening statements start at 9:30 AM ET.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

issue of publicly posting exhibits quickly. He also ruled that he would be unsealing testimony about a previously admitted document that may be somewhat embarrassing to Google — but was not confidential.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Week 4 of #USvGoogle concludes with testimony from Google employee Amit Varia in the States’ case and continued expert testimony from economist Michael Whinston. This week I believe we heard from a total of 8 witnesses including Microsoft’s CEO and several former/

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

"the govt’s prosecution has received much more coverage than Google’s defense" Big Tech on Trial has attended every day of the Google Search trial in person and summarized testimony from both sides. It could be that Google's defense provides a less compelling narrative.

Adam Kovacevich

@adamkovac

9 months

The DOJ’s big 10-week antitrust trial against Google is almost over. If you’ve been reading about the trial in the news, you may not have gotten the whole picture. That’s because the govt’s prosecution has received much more coverage than Google’s defense…

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

That’s a wrap for Week 2 of #USvGoogle . Court opened up to the public for about five minutes today to deal with some housekeeping issues — but we didn’t get to hear any testimony from Apple senior exec John Giannandrea. Judge Mehta told the parties he’d like to resolve the

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Google’s opening statement focused the court on two issues it would fight the DOJ hard on: 1) whether companies like Apple made Google the default because Google is the best product and enhanced user experience (not merely because Google could afford to pay billions of dollars);

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

One other tidbit from the first 30 minutes of Dischler’s testimony: DOJ put up an exhibit showing that in 2019 Google earned over $98 billion in revenue from ads on its owned and operated properties. Dischler said this number did not include ad revenues from YouTube.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

DOJ just completed its cross examination of Pichai. States will ask Pichai questions on cross after lunch break. During last hour, DOJ asked Pichai about a meeting he and other Google executives had with Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook in 2018. DOJ presented Pichai

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

When court re-opened, Google’s lawyer carried on with public cross-examination of Roszak. They finished up with Roszak quickly, and then DOJ called former Google software engineer Eric Lehman. Lehman worked at Google for 17 years on search quality/ranking until he left in 2022.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

The unspoken implication of this line of questioning: Google marketed the fact that companies could apply legal holds to Google chats to “meet legal or preservation obligations” but didn’t apply these legal holds to its own employees’ chats.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

current Google employees. The trial didn’t go into a single closed session throughout the week and Judge Mehta unsealed the closed-session testimony of multiple previous witnesses.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

After more than a week of back and forth in #USvGoogle about DOJ's public posting of admitted exhibits, the site with the exhibits is now back up:

U.S. and Plaintiff States v. Google LLC [2020] - Trial Exhibits

www.justice.gov

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Whether Google has a superior search engine is not on trial. The DOJ case says that Google search *is* better, precisely because it has access to user data and scale benefits. And that's why Google pays $26.3B+ per year for default status across devices, browsers and carriers. /

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Just posted my recap of the first week of action in #USvGoogle — and a preview of what lies ahead:

The Google antitrust trial is just getting started

Looking back on the first week of action in the courtroom — and what still lies ahead

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

New motion by Google seeks to enforce original trial schedule, which DOJ is now apparently trying to extend. It also included as an attachment a list of DOJ’s expected witnesses. Not sure if this was public before.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Court just wrapped for the day in #USvGoogle with brief argument over how to handle the document Judge Mehta ruled to admit yesterday that he acknowledged may be “embarrassing” for Google. DOJ argued that the closed-session testimony about the document should be unsealed on the

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

He also commented that it might be “embarrassing” for Google or Roszak but that didn’t substantially outweigh the document’s probative value.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

This is a trial about Google's Search monopoly. This is an antitrust trial. And the virtue of antitrust is that it protects competition. If Google and Apple are splitting markets, or if Google is effectively paying Apple not to enter, that's patently illegal. And on that note...

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Murphy likens a search engine to the tires on a car. If the tires don't work, it reflects poorly on the automaker. Apple and Samsung are incentivized to choose the search engine that works best. (Note to self: Investigate potential foreclosure in automaker-tire agreements.) /2

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

We’ve just hit the lunch break in #USvGoogle without any open court yet so far today. The trial was scheduled to stop at 12:30 pm on Fridays, but they said they would continue at 1:15 pm today — presumably to wrap up the testimony of Apple senior exec (and former Google head

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Rangel will face additional cross-examination from Google after lunch break ends. Later today, DOJ is expected to call Jim Kolotouros, Google’s VP of Android Platform Partnerships. Kolotouros was mentioned several times in DOJ’s motion to sanction Google for its chat practices.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ continues its examination of Google ad executive Jerry Dischler by asking questions about whether Google ever increased revenue by raising search ad prices by 5, 10, or 15%. I don’t have verbatim notes for this whole exchange, but (continued below in thread

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Excited to be kicking off this account by sharing the first article I wrote on the Google antitrust trial: I’ll be at the courthouse bright and early tomorrow to cover the start of the trial. Stay tuned for more updates.

The Google Monopoly Trial as a Morality Play

Here's what I'll be paying attention to as the trial gets underway

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

The Google Search monopoly trial is taking place in the same federal courthouse where Microsoft lost its monopoly trial in 1998. There’s an exhibit about the Microsoft trial in the hallway that Judge Mehta walks by every day.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

No court for #USvGoogle tomorrow so Week 5 of the trial is now complete. The DOJ has been wrapping up its case this week and only has a couple more witnesses to call. For the next two weeks we will be hearing primarily from the States’ witnesses before Google begins its defense.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

After re-opening court to the public, DOJ turned its questioning to focus on Kolotourous’ communication practices at Google — namely, copying Google lawyers on business emails and keeping his Google chats on the history-off setting after he was put on a litigation hold.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

to make public the 20 search queries Google makes the most revenue off of as well as Google’s traffic acquisition costs related to search (the total amount of money Google paid to partners in search distribution revenue shares).

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Week 2 of #USvGoogle begins with DOJ calling Verizon executive Brian Higgins to the stand. We only got about 20 minutes of open-court testimony before court went into closed session for discussion of the confidential details of Google and Verizon’s agreements.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

A good amount to unpack from the morning session in #USvGoogle , which included testimony from both former Google engineer Eric Lehman and DuckDuckGo founder/CEO Gabriel Weinberg.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

At #USvGoogle today, we're hearing from Google's final witness, expert economist Kevin Murphy. The thrust of Murphy's argument is that default agreements actually *enhance* competition, because they reflect the priorities of partners like Apple, Samsung, Mozilla, etc. 1/

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

respects the degree of public access still falls short of what the law requires.” The New York Times’ memorandum in support of their motion is available here:

Memorandum in Support – #731, Att. #1 in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GOOGLE LLC (D.D.C., 1:20-cv-...

MOTION to Intervene and for Access to Judicial Records by The New York Times Company. (Attachments: # 1 Memorandum in Support, # 2 Text of Proposed Order)(Sumar, Al-Amyn). Added MOTION to Permit on...

www.courtlistener.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

First break of the day in #USvGoogle with Sundar Pichai on the stand. Google’s direct examination of Pichai lasted only about 45 minutes so we’re already into DOJ’s cross examination. DOJ presented Pichai with a letter sent by Google’s former general counsel to his counterpart

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Judge Mehta just broke some news from the bench: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai will be testifying for Google on Monday.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

We got about an hour of open-court testimony from Lehman before court went into closed session again. Court remained in closed session for the rest of the day’s testimony.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Here’s a link to the parties’ joint submission regarding the public posting of trial exhibits: . DOJ proposed order: Google proposed order:

Exhibit A (Plaintiffs' Proposed Order) – #714, Att. #1 in UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. GOOGLE LLC...

Joint STATUS REPORT Regarding Public Posting of Trial Exhibits by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A (Plaintiffs' Proposed Order), # 2 Exhibit B (Google's Proposed Order))(Herrma...

www.courtlistener.com

Khushita Vasant

@KhushitaVasant

10 months

JUST IN: @Google & DOJ still have slight disagreements on how to resolve the problem of posting trial exhibits in search monopoly suit publicly. DOJ wants to post them “at the end of the trial day” but Google wants a 24-hour notice period. Each proposed separate orders for Mehta.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Line for #USvGoogle courtroom already formed an hour before court is set to start for the week with Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai taking the stand. Beyond his general oversight of Google and its dealings, Pichai will likely be asked about his specific

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ has passed over its expert witness Antonio Rangel to Google for cross-examination. Google’s questions so far have tried to push Rangel on his qualitative conclusions about the power of defaults.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Week 3 of #USvGoogle resumes tomorrow morning with Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue expected to take the stand. Google’s agreements with Apple are at the heart of this case, and Cue is likely one of the trial’s most important witnesses.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ has continued to press Google chief economist Hal Varian for downplaying the significance of scale in Google search’s success. DOJ also showed an email where Varian wrote: “I agree with the point that defending Google’s profits is difficult, but I’m going to try anyway.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Week 6 of #USvGoogle ends with close to an hour of argument about public access to the trial. Things got testy at times — at one pointed, Judge Mehta said to counsel for The New York Times: “You’ve shown up in Week 6 of this trial and demanded the sky…”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Late last night, Apple filed a statement regarding the confidentiality of Eddy Cue’s testimony. Apple is requesting that the court seal Cue’s testimony regarding “1) Apple’s negotiation and interpretation of the Information Services Agreement (the ‘ISA’) with Google; and 2) the

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

The trial is set to resume Tuesday morning at 9:30 am with testimony from Apple executive Eddie Cue.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

This morning in #USvGoogle saw continued testimony from Dr. Adam Juda, Google’s VP of Product Management in Search Ads Quality Systems. Juda’s testimony got pretty technical with DOJ asking him a lot of questions about the inner-mechanics of Google’s ad actions — lots of

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Professor Michael Whinston just finished his testimony and DOJ said it has no more witnesses to call in #USvGoogle . Attention will now turn to the States’ claim about SA360 before Google begins its defense.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

Some tense arguments re: confidentiality in #USvGoogle this morning. DOJ seems emboldened to push for more information to be public after Judge Mehta’s comments yesterday that not all numbers need to remain redacted. Judge Mehta is currently considering whether to allow DOJ

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

During that open-court testimony, Higgins testified that he wouldn’t see the value in placing a specialized vertical search provider like Yelp as the default search engine on a Verizon phone. This likely supports DOJ’s arguments that general search is its own relevant market.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Just finished up another busy day in #USvGoogle , which included testimony from three different witnesses discussing a range of issues in the case. Most interesting testimony of the day might have been from Patrick Chang, a former Samsung Next employee who played a leading role

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

and 2) whether general search is a relevant market. That second question matters because Google wants to argue it competes on a query by query basis not only with Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo — but also all kinds of specialized vertical providers like Expedia and Yelp #USvGoogle

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Google’s cross of Dischler continues with focus on how Google competes against Meta, Amazon, etc in the digital ad market. This is all probably meant to counter DOJ’s theory that Google has monopoly over the search ad market. Google thinks search ad is not a relevant market.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

the hearsay rule and said it didn’t seem to contain confidential information — although he said he was in a bit of a “pickle” since the testimony that provides the context for the exhibit occurred in a closed session.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ’s lawyer said these past actions include Google’s rebuke of Apple’s interest in the 2000s in developing a choice screen. DOJ said Google’s message to Apple was clear: “No default placement — no revenue share.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

about the case. Judge Mehta said he would review the testimony in question overnight and rule tomorrow.

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

grounds that the document doesn’t contain confidential information. Google’s attorney argued “there is no public interest in this document” because it was just the private musings of a witness (Mike Roszak, VP of Finance at Google) and it would generate even more “clickbait”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

short term because of the long term strategic importance it saw in search engine defaults. Interesting testimony because it supports different arguments for both DOJ and Google. On one hand, it underscores the power of defaults. On the other hand, it supports Google’s defense

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Here's my write-up on the testimony we heard from Adam Juda about the inner-mechanics of Google's adverting auctions:

A look inside Google's advertising auctions

On Day 16, DOJ explored whether Google could illegally raise the prices of its ads.

www.bigtechontrial.com

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

with an email sent by Google executive Donald Harrison recapping the meeting for other Google executives. The email stated that “Tim’s overall message to Google was “I imagine as us being able to be deep deep partners; deeply connected where our services end and yours begin…’”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

Court re-opened at the end of testimony for argument over the admissibility of the document that sparked the debate about the posting of exhibits yesterday. After hearing several minutes of argument from Google’s lawyer, Judge Mehta admitted the exhibit under an exception to

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

executive John [Giannandrea] agreed that Bing results are better than Google on desktop search (but not mobile). Parakhin testified that, despite this, his impression was that “Apple doesn’t really consider switching….[T]hey use as a bargaining chip against Google.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

9 months

During the States’ cross of Raghavan, they presented him with materials that Google used to market Google Hangouts/Chats to customers. These materials highlighted the ability to “Place legal holds on Hangouts Chats messages.”

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

11 months

DOJ spends the afternoon examining Cal Tech behavioral economics professor Antonio Rangel about the power of default placements — an important aspect of DOJ’s argument that Google’s default agreement led exclude competitors

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Big Tech on Trial

@BigTechOnTrial

10 months

Here’s my write-up on the action from today:

What motivated Apple?

On Day 10, Apple executive Eddy Cue testified amidst increasing scrutiny of the trial's secrecy

www.bigtechontrial.com

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