Google has refuted claims that it is the most popular search engine in the world due to unethical business practices, claiming that switching to a different provider just requires "literally four taps."
The corporation is currently being tested to determine whether it is a monopoly, and a lawyer for the company made the comments in court on Tuesday in Washington, DC.
The situation is a significant test of the authority of US authorities over the tech giants.
The case, according to the prosecution, is about "the future of the internet".
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, as well as representatives from Apple, will testify throughout the trial, which is scheduled to last 10 weeks.
The lawsuit, which is the largest for the sector in 25 years, will be decided by Judge Amit Mehta, who was chosen by former President Barack Obama for his post on the DC district court.
The complaint filed by the government focuses on the billions of dollars that Google paid to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla, and other companies so that it would be pre-installed as the default internet search engine.
According to the US, Google routinely pays more than $10 billion a year for this permission, giving it access to a consistent stream of user data that has helped it keep a dominant position in the market.
Prosecutors said that there were no payments made when Apple originally set Google as the default search engine in 2002.
However, Google proposed to pay the business in 2005 out of concern over its lead fading and subsequently threatened to stop payments if other companies were granted comparable access, according to the authorities.
The business also forbade Samsung, which develops Android phones, from collaborating with a business that employed a different form of search methodology, as well as Apple from enhancing its own search products.
"This is a monopolist flexing," Mr. Dintzer said.
In addition to generic search engine companies like Microsoft's Bing, Google claimed it was up against fierce competition from more niche websites and applications that consumers use to discover restaurants, airlines, and other things.
According to the company's attorney, John Schmidtlein, "There are many ways users access the web other than through default search engines, and people use them all the time."