Google’s claim that search users have choice is “bogus,” Microsoft CEO tells judge

Enlarge / Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella arrives at federal court on October 2, 2023 in Washington, DC. Nadella is testifying in the antitrust trial to determine if Alphabet Inc.'s Google maintains a monopoly in the online search business. (credit: Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images North America)

On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella showed up at the Google antitrust trial to back the Department of Justice's argument that "Google used unfair tactics"—most significantly, default search contracts—to block opportunities for search competitors like Bing, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided Ars with a transcript of Nadella's morning testimony. It excludes approximately an hour's worth of testimony from the afternoon session (that transcript is not yet available). But it includes about an hour of questioning from DOJ lawyer Adam Severt, during which Nadella said that due to Google's grip on mobile providers and browsers' default search placements, the idea that users have real choices when selecting a search engine is "bogus."

However, Nadella's efforts to back the DOJ seemingly required that the CEO walk back some of his earliest remarks hyping AI-powered Bing as potentially giving Microsoft a long-sought-after competitive advantage over Google.