US judge grills both sides in landmark Google antitrust trial

Washington: A US judge on Thursday pushed against the central pleas of both US government and Google lawyers as he heard their closing arguments at a...

Washington: A US judge on Thursday pushed against the central pleas of both US government and Google lawyers as he heard their closing arguments at a landmark antitrust trial in Washington.

Federal Judge Amit Mehta, whose decision is not expected until later in the year, raised his questions during two days of hearings that come six months after the conclusion of testimony.

The case is the first of five major lawsuits by the US government to reach trial, with Meta, Amazon, Apple and a separate case against Google also heading for federal court.

The trial is the first time the US Department of Justice (DOJ) has faced a big tech company in court since Microsoft was targeted more than two decades ago over the dominance of its Windows operating system.

The decision in the search engine case will be made by Judge Mehta, who presided over several months of testimony that saw Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives take the stand.