During the antitrust trial in Washington, the US Justice Department questioned a Google executive about the company s alleged manipulation of online advertising prices. The executive, Adam Juda, stated that Google uses a formula to determine the winners of advertising auctions, which includes factors such as ad quality.
Google denied that it had illegally used agreements to exclude its search competitors and said it had simply provided a superior product, adding that people can easily switch which search engine they use.
Google, the Department of Justice, and state attorneys squared off in federal court Tuesday in the biggest technology antitrust trial in years, debating whether the tech giant has unlawful market dominance in search.
The US government on Tuesday accused Google of paying out $10 billion a year to Apple and other firms in order to safeguard its monopoly over online search.