A new class action lawsuit has revealed that Apple has an agreement with Google that it will not engage in the search engine business and that its devices will continue to offer Google as a default option for Safari.
The lawsuit, filed by Apple and Google, alleges that these technology companies have a non-competitive agreement with the search engine business that violates US fraud laws.
Although the exact amount Google pays for Apple is unknown, the lawsuit alleges that it makes billions of dollars in payments every year. A 2020 report from the New York Times stated that Apple receives an estimated $ 8-12 billion a year from Google for the same purpose.
The case suggests that the software giant does not want any major competitor to enter the search business market. Android phones are already shipped via Google, and with Apple devices also offering the same, Google will get a huge amount of its search.
Therefore, the company will receive more ads and will place ads in front of a larger audience. And many people who rarely change the default search engine they find on their device, Google knows. This explains why Google might spend a lot of money to maintain the current market environment.
The lawsuit was filed in a California court and alleges that Google’s has agreed to share its profits with the business and Apple will also provide specialized treatment to devices such as the iPhone and iPad.
It even suspects that the agreement between the two technology companies includes plans to oppress smaller competitors as well as find real and potential competitors.
The complaint also seeks to “split Google into separate and independent companies and to divide Apple into separate and independent companies in line with Standard Oil’s divisional division into Exxon, Mobile, Conoco, Amoco, Sohio, Chevron, and others.”
MacRumors reported that the UK Competition and Markets Authority called the program “a major barrier to entry and expansion” for some of its competitors involved in the search engine business.
Following this, there is a possibility that Apple and Google could argue that users are free to choose other search engines in Safari. These include Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo and more.
