Sundar Pichai to testify in US vs Google anti-trust case on Oct 30

Pichai set to testify in antitrust trial led by US Justice Department and state attorneys general.

San Francisco: Sundar Pichai is set to testify in the US vs Google anti-trust case on October 30, sharing his side of the story on how Google’s search is successful owing to its own innovation and not deals with the big companies.

Pichai will testify in the ongoing antitrust trial in the suit brought by the US Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general.

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They have alleged that Google abused its dominance in the search engine market.

Pichai will be one of the first witnesses Google calls for its antitrust defense, which started officially on Thursday.

“Judge Amit Mehta just broke some news from the bench: Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai will be testifying for Google on Monday,” the X account titled ‘Big Tech on Trial’ posted.

On Thursday, top Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan testified in the case, and touched upon a number of the key issues.

“He testified about the emphasis Google places on R&D and innovation, disputing the notion that Google’s search product is higher quality in countries other than the US where it faces increased competition,” the X account further posted.

Raghavan also testified that Google faces intense competition from Amazon and social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

He disagreed with the Department of Justice’s standpoint of Google as a “one-stop shop” because he thinks it’s not how users think about their searches.

When asked about a 1998 article about Yahoo!’s dominance of search, Raghavan said he was aware rivals from Expedia.com to Instagram to TikTok competed for users’ attention.

“I feel a keen sense not to become the next roadkill,” said Raghavan who reports to Pichai. Raghavan is a Senior Vice President at Google, responsible for Google Search, Assistant, Geo, Ads, Commerce and Payments products.