Sundar Pichai—Defended Google's search monopoly in landmark federal antitrust trial
In October 2023, Sundar Pichai testified in the largest tech antitrust trial since the Microsoft case. The DOJ proved Google paid Apple over $10 billion annually (and $26.3 billion total in 2021) to be the default search engine on devices. The court found Google had illegally monopolized the online search market. In April 2025, Pichai testified against DOJ remedies proposals, arguing that forced data sharing would be a 'de facto divestiture' of the search engine.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Antitrust & Competition | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.993 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.66)
Evidence (2 signals)
Pichai testified against DOJ remedies proposals, calling forced data sharing a 'de facto divestiture'
In April 2025, Pichai testified in federal court arguing that the DOJ's proposal to force Google to share its search data with competitors would be a 'de facto divestiture' of the company's search engine.
Pichai testified in federal antitrust trial defending $26.3B in default search deals
Pichai testified in the largest tech antitrust trial since Microsoft, defending Google's practice of paying billions to be the default search engine (including over $10 billion annually to Apple). He argued these deals were meant to make services easier for users.