Google has dismissed arguments that it is the world's biggest search engine because of illegal practices, saying to switch to another company takes "literally four taps".

A lawyer for the company made the remarks in court in Tuesday in Washington DC, where it is facing trial over whether it is a monopoly.

The case is a major test of the power of US regulators over the tech giants.

Prosecutors said the case was about "the future of the internet".

The trial is expected to last 10 weeks and will feature testimony from Google boss Sundar Pichai as well as executives from Apple.

Judge Amit Mehta, who was appointed to his position on DC district court by former president Barack Obama, will decide the case - the biggest for the industry in 25 years.

 

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The government's lawsuit focuses on billions of payments Google has made to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and others to be pre-installed as the default online search engine.

The US said Google typically pays more than $10bn a year for that privilege, securing its access to a steady gush of user data that helped maintain its hold on the market.

 

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