WASHINGTON, May 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will

layout its antitrust case against Alphabet's Google in

closing arguments on Thursday, wrapping up a trial in which the

online search leader is accused of breaking the law to stay on

top.

The U.S. government has hammered away at Google in a trial

that started Sept. 12, arguing Google is a monopolist and

illegally abused its power to favor its bottom line.

This case, filed by the Trump administration, was the first

of five aimed at reining in the market power of tech leaders.

The second, against Meta, was also filed during the Trump

administration, while Biden's antitrust enforcers have followed

with a second case against Google and cases against Amazon.com ( AMZN )

and Apple Inc. ( AAPL )

In the non-jury trial, the judge will weigh whether Google

violated the law, and will later look at any punishment if

needed.

Witnesses from Verizon, Android maker Samsung

Electronics ( SSNLF ) and Google itself testified about the

company's annual payments - $26.3 billion in 2021 - to ensure

that its search is the default on smartphones and browsers, and

to keep its dominant market share.

In his testimony, Google CEO Sundar Pichai acknowledged the

importance of making its search engine the default on phones,

tables and laptops to keep users loyal, saying: "We definitely

see value."

In turn Google has argued the government was wrong to allege

it broke the law to hold onto its massive market share, saying

its search engine was wildly popular because of its quality and

that dissatisfied users can easily switch.

Furthermore, despite Google's multibillion-dollar payments

and Pichai's statement, Google's lawyers have argued that being

the default has limited value and that users will not stick

around if they are unhappy.