Google's expert in US antitrust trial defends billions paid to device makers

Visitors cast their shadows past the logo of Google at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 15, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The multi-billion dollar payments that Alphabet's Google makes to Apple, wireless carriers and others are normal competitive behavior and not an abuse of monopoly, an expert called by Google testified on Monday in a blockbuster antitrust trial.

In what is expected to be the last week of trial, Kevin Murphy, who teaches at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, argued Apple and others played Google and Microsoft, which has the Bing search engine, off against each other in order to win big payments from Google.