United States takes on Google in biggest tech monopoly trial of 21st century

Google is headed to trial in Washington D.C., where it will defend itself over the Justice Department's claims that it abused its monopoly power in its search engine business. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

The United States government is taking on one of the world's most powerful companies: Google.

A court battle kicks off on Tuesday in which the U.S. Justice Department will argue that Google abused its power as a monopoly to dominate the search engine business. It's the government's first major monopoly case to make it to trial in decades and the first in the age of the modern internet.