Tech giant argues it is not a monopoly as antitrust trial gets underway
SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Monday confronted the second major U.S. antitrust trial in two months to cast the internet powerhouse as a brazen bully that uses its immense wealth and people’s dependence on one of its main products to stifle competition at consumers’ expense.
Google attorney Glenn Pomerantz attempted to debunk the portrait of the company having a stranglehold on Android apps by outlining a wide gamut of competition from rival mobile and video game console stores, as well as Apple’s store for apps that run on its iPhone software. Although a federal judge sided with Apple on most fronts in that trial, the outcome opened one potential crack in the digital fortress that the company has built around the iPhone.
That is why, Bornstein said, the Play Store handles more than 90 percent of all Android download apps and resulted in the commission store generating more than $12 billion in revenue during 2021. That figure represented about 5% of the $237.5 billion in Google Services revenue — most of which came from digital ads — during 2021, according to the financial statements of its corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. GOOG, +0.83% GOOGL, +0.89%.
“They want to take all the benefits of Android and all the benefits of the Play Store and not pay for them,” Pomerantz said of Epic.
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