Mehta expressed reservations about allowing Google to require device makers to take Gemini if they want access to YouTube or Google Maps, noting that would allow Google to use its ‘leverage’ in the market to better position its AI service. — Reuters
Alphabet Inc's Google wants to retain the right to bundle its popular mapping and video apps with its Gemini AI service, a lawyer for the company told a US federal judge on Oct 8, pushing back on a Justice Department proposal that would bar the practice.
"There’s no notion that Google has to date gained monopoly or market power” in the artificial intelligence market, Google lawyer John Schmidtlein told Judge Amit Mehta. Likewise, "there’s been no finding that Maps is a monopoly product or that YouTube is a monopoly product.”
Mehta, who found that Google has monopolized search and search advertising, is crafting a remedy to resolve the company’s illegal conduct. In a decision last month, he ruled that Google could no longer pay companies to exclusively use its Search, Chrome web browser or Google Play Store, though he declined to bar all payments outright. Mehta’s ruling incorporated aspects of proposals from Google and the Justice Department, which led to Wednesday’s hearing where both sides argued for him to adopt their language in a final order.
During the trial, witnesses testified that Google offers an "all-or-nothing” bundle to device manufactures, effectively requiring they preload nearly a dozen of Google’s apps if they want access to the the Play Store, the largest app store on Google’s Android operating system. That requirement, for example, forced Microsoft Corp to feature Google search on its Surface Duo touchscreen device instead of its own search engine, Bing.
The Justice Department argued that the same prohibitions that apply to Search, Chrome and Play should also apply to Google’s Gemini, a proposal the company opposes.
Google’s YouTube is the TV service of choice for viewers of all ages, Bloomberg has reported. It now accounts for more than all of Walt Disney Co.’s TV networks and streaming services combined, according to recent data from Nielsen. It also generates more sales from advertising than all four broadcast networks combined, and users collectively watch over 1 billion hours of video on YouTube every day.
Google Maps, meanwhile, dominates the digital mapping and navigation market by a significant margin. Last year, the service surpassed 2 billion monthly users globally, placing it among a handful of Google’s most widely used products. Comparatively, Apple Inc had "hundreds of millions” of Apple Maps users in 2020, the company has said. More than 5 million other apps and websites also rely on the Google Maps Platform to power location services like navigation and local business data.
The Justice Department during the Biden administration investigated Google Maps over potential antitrust violations, but never filed a case.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Google’s Schmidtlein argued that the AI industry is still developing and Google shouldn’t be barred from using the same tactics as others in the market do. He likened Google’s potential bundle of Gemini, YouTube and Google Maps with Microsoft’s inclusion of its CoPilot AI within its Office productivity software.
Mehta, however, expressed reservations about allowing Google to require device makers to take Gemini if they want access to YouTube or Google Maps, noting that would allow Google to use its "leverage” in the market to better position its AI service.
Cameron Gower, a lawyer for the Justice Department, urged Mehta to apply the same limitations to Gemini that he ruled would apply to Chrome.
Mehta didn’t say when he would issue a final ruling. – Bloomberg
