By Diane Bartz
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The founder of Branch Metrics, which developed a method of searching within smartphone apps, told a U.S. antitrust trial on Wednesday how his company struggled to integrate with devices because of steps Google took to block them.
The testimony came during the third week of a more than two-month trial in which the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to show that Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s Google abused its monopoly of search and some search advertising. Google has said that its business practices were legal.
Google is accused of paying $10 billion a year based on "revenue share agreements" to smartphone makers, wireless carriers and others who agree to make its software the default and maintain its monopoly in search.
Alexander Austin, a former chief executive of Branch Metrics, said in meetings with Samsung (KS:005930), the Android phone maker was worried Branch's tools would cause conflict with Google.
Austin said he would be contacted by Samsung during a launch in 2019 and told, "Oh, we need to cut this functionality because Google says it's, like, in conflict or there's a risk to the contract."
Specifically, Branch had to make sure that its searches remained within apps and never linked to the web.
The government also called Anna Kartasheva, a Google executive, to ask her about emails that appeared to show Google was concerned about the presence of Branch Metrics software on smartphones.