Mozilla fears it can be collateral damage in US-Google war

In the lawsuit, the US Justice Department referenced Google's search agreement with Mozilla as one example of its monopolisation of the search engine market in the US.

"Small and independent companies such as Mozilla thrive by innovating, disrupting and providing users with industry leading features and services in areas like search," said Mozilla's chief legal officer Amy Keating.

"The ultimate outcomes of an antitrust lawsuit should not cause collateral damage to the very organisations -- like Mozilla -- best positioned to drive competition and protect the interests of consumers on the web," Keating said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mozilla said that it has been leading the fight for competition, innovation and consumer choice in the browser market and beyond for the past 20 years.

"We have a long track record of creating innovative products and services that respect the privacy and security of consumers, and have successfully pushed the market to follow suit".

In a statement, Google said that people choose their preferred service and Mozilla's Firefox browser is an example.

Mozilla is funded almost entirely by revenue from search promotional agreements.

"When Yahoo! paid to be the default search engine in Firefox, most Americans promptly switched their search engine to their first choice-Google. (Mozilla later chose Google to be its default search provider, citing an 'effort to provide quality search' and its 'focus on user experience')," Google said.

According to Keating, unintended harm to smaller innovators from enforcement actions will be detrimental to the system as a whole, without any meaningful benefit to consumers.

"It is not how anyone will fix Big Tech. Instead, remedies must look at the ecosystem in its entirety, and allow the flourishing of competition and choice to benefit consumers," Mozilla said.