Google tells judge it wants to retain right to bundle Gemini with Maps, YouTube: report

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A lawyer for Google (NASDAQ:GOOG [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOG]) (NASDAQ:GOOGL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/GOOGL]) told a federal judge on Wednesday the company wants to retain the right to bundle its popular mapping and video apps with Gemini AI as it pushed back on a Department of Justice proposal to bar such a move, according to _Bloomberg_.

"There’s no notion that Google has to date gained monopoly or market power" in the artificial intelligence market, John Schmidtlein, the attorney representing the tech giant, told Judge Amit Mehta at a hearing. Likewise, "there’s been no finding that Maps is a monopoly product or that YouTube is a monopoly product."

Judge Mehta, who found that Google has monopolized search and search advertising, is working on a remedy to resolve the company’s illegal conduct. Last month, he ruled that Google could no longer pay companies to exclusively use its Search, Chrome web browser, or Google Play Store, though he declined to bar all payments outright.

Mehta’s ruling incorporated aspects of proposals from Google and the Justice Department, which led to Wednesday’s hearing, where both sides argued for him to adopt their language in a final order, the report said.

Schmidtlein argued that the AI industry is still developing and Google shouldn’t be barred from using the same tactics as others in the market do. He likened Google’s potential bundle of Gemini, YouTube, and Google Maps with Microsoft’s (MSFT [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/MSFT]) inclusion of its CoPilot AI within its Office productivity software.

The report said Mehta, however, expressed reservations about allowing Google to require device makers to take Gemini if they want access to YouTube or Google Maps, noting that would allow Google to use its “leverage” in the market to better position its AI service.

On the other hand, DoJ lawyer Cameron Gower urged Mehta to apply the same limitations to Gemini that he ruled would apply to Chrome.

Mehta didn’t say when he would issue a final ruling.

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