Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO, took the stand on Wednesday during the remedies phase of the company’s search antitrust trial, and offered a simple message. The US government’s plan to rectify Google’s search monopoly, he said, would be so crushing to Google Search that it might be hard to justify continuing to build a search engine at all.

By Jody Godoy (Reuters) -Google CEO Sundar Pichai is expected to take the stand on Wednesday morning at a trial in Washington where antitrust enforcers seek an order forcing the company to sell its Chrome web browser and take other measures to boost competition among online search providers.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai cautioned that the US Department of Justice's antitrust remedies could jeopardize Google Search, potentially leading the company to discontinue its flagship product. Pichai argued that the DOJ's proposal to share Google's search index with competitors at minimal cost would stifle innovation.