Google’s 21-year deal with Apple is the “heart” of monopoly case, judge says

Enlarge / Pandu Nayak, Google's vice president of search, was Google's first witness called after the Department of Justice rested its case in historic monopoly trial. (credit: Eamonn M. McCormack / Stringer | Getty Images Europe)

The Department of Justice called its last witness this week, resting its case in a blockbuster antitrust trial probing Google's alleged monopoly over search. Over the next five weeks, Google will do everything in its power to defend against those allegations—or else risk a potential breakup of its lucrative, industry-dominating search business—including likely calling Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives as witnesses.

Since the trial began on September 12, Judge Amit Mehta has heard testimony from 29 witnesses, Bloomberg reported, including leading economists and senior executives from Google, Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and other tech companies either partnering with or rivaling Google over the years.

Much of this testimony was closed to protect tech companies' trade secrets, but news outlets have since filed a motion hoping to unseal testimony and access more trial documents sooner, hoping to share more details with the public about the case the DOJ made.