Enlarge / Mitchell Baker, Mozilla CEO, at a conference in 2019. (credit: Horacio Villalobos / Contributor | Corbis News)
This week, Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker rose as a key figure in Google’s defense against the Justice Department’s monopoly claims. Providing a video deposition for the landmark trial, Baker testified that Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox tried to switch from using Google as a default search engine but reverted back after a “failed” bet on Yahoo made it clear that Google was Firefox users’ preferred search engine.
According to Bloomberg, Mozilla’s temporary switch to Yahoo is “the only situation in which a browser has switched the default search engine provider.” This makes Baker’s testimony potentially very powerful because it’s a clear example that backs up Google’s core argument that its search engine wins default status due to its quality, not due to anticompetitive behaviors.
“The evidence will show that the reasons behind Mozilla’s switch back to Google after selecting Yahoo as the default search engine for its Firefox browser confirms,” Google’s pre-trial brief said. “Google wins competitions that browser suppliers create for choosing their default search service by offering the best product at the best price. That is quintessential ‘competition on the merits.'” In another court filing, Google argued, “there is no evidence of coercive conduct.”
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