Apple has announced its intention to participate in the lawsuit between Google and the U.S. Department of Justice over the alleged monopoly of Google Search. The technology company argues that Google can no longer adequately represent Apple’s interests. The lawsuit follows an earlier ruling in which a judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly in the search engine market.
The U.S. Department of Justice presented several proposals in November to address Google’s monopoly. These include the possible sale of Chrome and Android, as well as stricter rules around search engine agreements. One of the main proposals is that Google will no longer be allowed to offer money or other valuable resources to third parties to set Google’s search engine as their default.
Agreement
Apple has an agreement with Google and receives billions of dollars annually to install Google Search as the default search engine in Safari. Despite this reliance on Google, Apple has no plans to develop its own search engine, even if the current agreement with Google were to expire.
Apple has stated that it is important that Google gets the possibility to continue to make payments to make its search engine the default. The company is prepared to support the Internet giant in this during the trial. Apple plans to call witnesses at the April hearing to defend Google’s position. “Google can no longer adequately represent Apple’s interests because the company must defend itself against an attempt to be split up,” Apple said.
Contract term
Apple’s announcement comes after Google made proposals to relax its search deals with partners such as Apple. One proposal is to limit the maximum contract duration to 12 months, allowing parties to reconsider annually whether they want to work with Google. Another option is to break up search contracts for different platforms, such as separate agreements for iPhones and iPads.
With these moves, Apple appears to be positioning itself as a key player in the case, with an eye toward both its own interests and future search agreements.
Read more: Google tries to convince judge to keep Chrome browser