WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This morning, civil society organizations and think tanks hosted a U.S. v. Google pre-trial press conference to correct the record on Google’s false narratives and make the case that Google’s default agreements are an abuse of monopoly power.
Below are key quotes from the press conference participants. Full audio and video of the event are here.
Sacha Haworth, Executive Director, The Tech Oversight Project –
“We could spend all day talking about the evils of Google, but at the core, the reason why the company operates this way is because they are fundamentally unaccountable.
“Google is a 1.7 trillion-dollar company because they have illegal monopolies, and there is no denying that when it comes to search, Google’s default search agreements block out competitors, pay companies not to compete against them, and prevent better products and results from getting in front of consumers.”
Katie Van Dyck, Senior Legal Counsel, American Economic Liberties Project –
“The Google search trial will be hugely consequential for our digital world where the outcome will determine how millions of Americans access and use the internet.
“Our motion to intervene is not about the convenience of a live audio feed; it is about preserving the public’s constitutional right to transparency in our judicial system. While ordinary Americans can get their whole lives exposed in court, a trillion dollar company is opposed to an accessible public trial and attempting to shroud their own proceedings in secrecy.
“The American public has a significant stake in the outcome of this trial, and as such, we hope the court accepts our intervention to provide much needed transparency.”
Maria Langholz, Communications Director, Demand Progress –
“It's not just Google—Amazon, Apple, Verizon, Meta, and many other giants are dominating the modern economy, and the question of just how powerful such companies are allowed to become hangs in the balance.
“This is not an ordinary case where the outcome will be felt only by the two parties in the courtroom. Our democracy is best served by full transparency in landmark cases on corporate power, such as this trial.
“We hope that Judge Mehta will recognize the stakes and grant the public full live access to the trial as it happens.”
Charlotte Slaiman, Vice President, Public Knowledge –
“Even if the suit is highly successful, as we hope that it will be, we will still need new laws and rules. We need to strengthen our antitrust broadly. We need to address self-preferencing concerns, not just in search but in other digital platforms. We need to address App Store concerns. We need to break up the ad tech stack. And we need to create a new digital regulator. These are all additional legislative solutions that are still going to be needed, even if the case is highly successful.”