Google’s contract with Lenovo Group Ltd’s Motorola blocked the smartphone maker from setting Perplexity AI as the default assistant on its new devices, an executive of the startup testified at the search giant’s antitrust trial.
Perplexity’s chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko said on April 23 that the company’s efforts to obtain preferential distribution on smartphones from manufacturers and wireless carriers was because of Google contracts, which he said are like a "gun to your head” for a company. His testimony came in the Justice Department’s case against Alphabet Inc’s Google to determine remedies after it was found to have an illegal monopoly in search.
