Did Google pressure Samsung to Block other Search Engines?

The default search engine of Samsung Galaxy phones is Google Search. Google pays Samsung millions of dollars to pre-install its search engine on Samsung devices. This partnership benefits both of the companies. Google can keep its search engine as default and Samsung gets paid a huge amount of money. But did Google pressure Samsung to Block other Search Engines?

Recently, during an antitrust trial between the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google, the DOJ accused Google of stopping Samsung from adding other search engines to its devices. 

A former executive of Samsung’s Venture Capital unit, Samsung Next, Patrick Chang stated that Google pays billions of dollars to Samsung to make Google Search the default search engine of Galaxy phones. He also said that Google pressurises Samsung to block other search engines like Branch. They do not let them pre-install any other search engine on their phones.

Did Google accept the Allegations?

Google denied all the accusations straight. It stated that Google has never interfered with what Samsung will choose as its own search engine. DOJ has even shown evidence in which there are emails and documents where Google executives have clearly discussed how to stop Samsung from using Branch.

The trial is still going on. All the accusations against Google have raised concerns about its market dominance in the search engine industry. If by any chance Google is found to have abused its market power then it will face a number of penalties and fines.

There are some reasons why Google might pressure companies to block other search engines:

• To maintain its market dominance
• To protect its revenue
• To collect data on users

Have things like this happened before too?

In fact, in 2019, the European Commission fined Google €1 billion for abusing its market dominance. 

In 2018, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google for abusing its market dominance in the search engine industry and has harmed consumers. 

But Google denied all the allegations and claims that it has never used its market dominance in a wrong way. 

However, all these are just accusations right now. Google has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing. But the accusations are no doubt serious. Let’s see how interestingly this trial plays out whether in favour of Google or not, till then stay connected with oreonow.