Google’s European search menu draws interest in U.S.

For the past few OAKLAND, CALIF. months, some people who bought a new smartphone in Europe with Google’s Android software were presented with an extra option while setting up the device: choosing a search engine other than Google.

This so-called choice menu started appearing on new smartphones and tablet computers running Google software after March, part of an effort by the internet giant to address a 2018 ruling from European authorities that the company had abused its dominance in smartphone software to give an advantage unfairly to its search engine.

The move to provide users with an easy choice in search has now caught the attention of the Justice Department lawyers who are preparing to bring antitrust charges against the internet giant as early as this summer, according to an executive who has interacted with antitrust investigators. A case would be one of the biggest monopoly actions taken by the United States in decades, and department officials are looking at whether what Google has done for its European customers could make sense for customers in the United States.

Over the last year, the Justice Department and state attorneys general have been investigating the company’s business practices around web search and online advertising technology. Google controls about 90% of web searches globally, and it captures about onethird of every dollar spent on online advertising.

Gabriel Weinberg, chief executive of DuckDuckGo, a privacy-focused search engine, said Justice Department officials investigating Google’s search business have asked the company on several occasions in the past month for details about the preference menu and the impact it could make in leveling the playing field.

“They had a lot of very pointed questions,” said Weinberg, who made similar remarks in an article published earlier by Bloomberg. He did not discuss specific questions.

As the Justice Department prepares its case against Google, the keen interest in the Android phone’s preference menu offers insight into the focus of the

investigation and one potential approach that would not require the U.S. government to pursue the most extreme — and legally challenging — path of trying to break up the company.

“It doesn’t seem like too much of an imposition on Google’s business model while opening the floodgates to competition a bit,” said Michael Carrier, a law professor at Rutgers University Law School. “The fact that Europe has gone first gives the DO J a benefit to see how it’s working.”

Google is the default search engine on nearly all of the world’s smartphones. Google is the predetermined option for most handsets with its Android software, which accounts for about 80% of smartphones. For nonGoogle software phones, the company pays Apple billions of dollars a year to be the default choice on iPhones.

DuckDuckGo said it has also held discussions with nearly every governmental investigator, including Australia and the United Kingdom, looking into Google about its views on the search preference menu. It has also spoken to state attorneys general who are investigating Google’s online advertising technology and web search businesses.

In a statement, Julie Tarallo McAlister, a Google spokeswoman, said the company continues “to engage with the ongoing investigations led by the Department of Justice” and state attorneys general. “Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support thousands of businesses and enable increased choice and competition.”

There is precedent for this sort of solution to an antitrust problem. The 2001 settlement that ended the long-running antitrust battle between Microsoft and the federal government included a requirement that users be able to change some of their default software from the company’s own applications, like Internet Explorer, to those designed by competitors.

But rivals have taken issue with how Google has implemented the choice menu in Europe. It is limiting the number of nonGoogle search engine options to three in any country. It is also forcing companies interested in appearing as one of the choices to participate in an auction every three months to bid for how much they are willing to pay each time they are selected as the default option. The three highest bidders appear alongside Google on the menu.

DuckDuckGo said appearing on the menu should be free and that more than four providers should be presented. The company said the current format is not working as it should and will only serve to cement Google’s dominance and line its pockets.