The biggest tech antitrust trial in decades finally began Tuesday, as the U.S. government and Google made their opening arguments in a major case over the tech giant’s powerful search engine and the business behind it .

In opening statements, the Department of Justice (DOJ) described Google as a monopoly that used its size and resources, including through its exclusivity agreements with device makers, to squeeze out competitors. Google, meanwhile, argued that it won those contracts because of the quality of its search engine, which the company said manufacturers chose because it improved their products.

Deals with manufacturers like Apple and Samsung make Google Search the automatic choice for out-of-the-box users. The most notable of these contracts is a multibillion-dollar deal with Apple, which puts Google’s flagship product in first place for the iOS software that powers iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. The exact amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but the Justice Department said Tuesday it amounts to more than $10 billion a year.

“Google has illegally maintained a monopoly for more than a decade,” Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer argued in opening statements. He added that Google’s dominance has allowed it to ignore privacy criticism and become slow on innovation, particularly in developing artificial intelligence products. The government also argued that the deal with Google ultimately harmed Apple’s ability to develop its own search tools, to the detriment of consumers. “The damage caused by Google’s exclusive contracts affects every phone and computer in the country.”

Meanwhile, Google said payment defaults are not the end all be all when it comes to product distribution and growth. John Schmidtlein, a lawyer representing Google at Williams & Connolly, pointed the finger at Microsoft, which preloads its Bing search engine on PCs by default. But, he noted, consumers often turn to Google because it’s the better product. The deals with Google, he said, didn’t hurt Microsoft by competing with or improving on Bing.

“Microsoft has failed to invest, has failed to innovate in a way comparable to Google, in many areas that have nothing to do with scale,” Schmidtlein said.

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Google has maintained an illegal monopoly for more than a decade, Justice Department says

The lawsuit is the largest tech antitrust battle since the Justice Department and a handful of states took on Microsoft in the late 1990s. In that case, the government accused the Windows maker of having a monopoly on computer software . settlement in 2001. For Google, the lawsuit comes at a time of great uncertainty. The company, which turns 25 this month, rushed to launch new products after the explosion of generative AI took it by surprise.

The lawsuit, which was first filed in 2020 during the Trump administration, represents the highest-profile antitrust case Google has faced, but the company has long been the subject of antitrust scrutiny. In 2013, the Federal Trade Commission closed a two-year investigation into Google after accusing it of biased search results, but found no wrongdoing. And Google’s competition problems are likely to persist even after this test. Earlier this year, the Justice Department took on Google in a separate antitrust suit focused on the company’s digital advertising operations. The case is expected to go to trial in the coming years.

Throughout opening statements, Judge Amit Mehta, who will decide the case rather than before a jury, asked pointed questions. For example, Google spent part of its opening statement emphasizing how easy it is to change the default search engines, even noting the number of clicks required to make the change. When Judge Mehta asked how many people were actually making the switch, Google lawyer Schmidtlein said the data was not available.

At one point, Justice Department lawyer Dintzer claimed that Google destroyed evidence in the case by using a software feature in its internal systems called “disabled history” that automatically deleted work chats when questions of security, distribution and contracts were discussed. Dintzer claimed the company did so because its executives knew it was engaging in activities that could attract antitrust scrutiny. “They broadcast the story so they could rewrite it here in court,” he joked.

The trial is expected to last 10 weeks, with testimony expected from several tech bigwigs, including Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple’s senior vice president of services Eddy Cue and Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker, who will appear via a video statement.

This article was originally published by Forbes US.

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