The US Department of Justice has spent three years on two presidential administrations looking into the case that Google is illegally abusing its power in electronics search to limit competition.
To defend itself, Google has enlisted hundreds of employees and three powerful law firms. To date he has spent millions of dollars on legal fees and lobbyists.
Next Tuesday, a judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia will begin to consider the company's arguments in a trial that will answer a very important question: Did today's technology companies become dominant by breaking the law?
The case US et al v. Google will be the federal government's first antitrust trial in the modern Internet age, as a generation of technology companies has grown to wield enormous influence over commerce, the information, public discourse, entertainment and work.
The trial will take the antitrust battle against these companies into a new phase, moving from challenging mergers and acquisitions to taking a deeper look at the businesses that push and keep them in power.
There hasn't been a court case like this on tech power since the Justice Department brought it Microsoft in court in 1998 for violations of antitrust laws.
