Court Allows Google-Apple Search Deal to Continue With Conditions

[MacRumors]

Google will not be barred from entering into search agreements with companies like Apple, the judge presiding over the antitrust case between Google and the U.S. Department of Justice said today (via Bloomberg).

Google is not allowed to enter into exclusive contracts for search engine distribution, but it is still allowed to pay to Apple to be a search engine option on iPhone. Apple earns around $20 billion annually from Google, and there was a risk that the two companies could be banned from entering into search engine agreements.

"Cutting off payments from Google almost certainly will impose substantial -- in some cases, crippling -- downstream harms to distribution partners, related markets, and consumers, which counsels against a broad payment ban," said the judge.

Google is specifically allowed to make payments and offer "other consideration" to distribution partners for the preloading or placement of Google Search, Chrome, and Gemini.

Google will not have to sell its Chrome browser, or the Android operating system. The judge said that the government "overreached in seeking the forced divestiture" of the assets.

Besides being barred from entering into exclusive search engine distribution contracts, Google will also need to share data with rival search engines. The DOJ had asked that Google be forced to provide data on how it decides what to surface based on a given search.

Google was found to have a search monopoly back in August of 2024, and the court has been deciding what action to take to break up Google's monopoly since then. The DOJ was pushing for the divestiture of Chrome and the possible divestiture of Android.

Google is appealing the ruling, likely due to the data sharing component.

Article Link: Court Allows Google-Apple Search Deal to Continue With Conditions

 

[novagamer]

Surely unrelated: Gemini incoming as an option as soon as possible, probably.

edit: if you want a good search engine and have an adult job and are willing to use a very small amount of that money to improve your web search experience, try Kagi.

It's like Google was in 2003 with some additional useful features and no bloat or bs.

 

[usersince86]

Not that surprising, but a little disappointing

 

[tyrnnsrs]

I can't help but think that this is solely down to the fact that the $20B from Google to Apple is essentially pure profit for Apple and they aren't keen to lose that at all for their shareholders.

 

[gleepskip]

The cashier's check finally cleared the judge's bank account.

 

[bmark]

20 billion payment to Apple secured defined as non-exclusive contract!

 

[Falco McGregor]

And Apple is surely going to repeat this playbook with AI models. They'll offer a basic on-device Siri/Apple Intelligence for privacy and then allow you to hook into Anthropic, OpenAi, Grok or whatever for everything else and see who'll pay them for the access.

 

[GLS]

Now that it has the blessing of the judge, look for that $20 billion to increase in the coming year.

If I'm Apple, I tell Google the new price is $25 billion. What is Google going to do, balk? They need that search data. If it's worth $20 billion today, it's easily worth $25 billion tomorrow. And $30 billion in the coming years.

And if Apple wants to use Gemini? That's going to be a chunk as well.

 

[Falco McGregor]

I can't help but think that this is solely down to the fact that the $20B from Google to Apple is essentially pure profit for Apple and they aren't keen to lose that at all for their shareholders.

And like clockwork Apple shares are up 4% on the news.

 

[Oestreich Dieter]

Good. We can already change our default search engine if we want. Apple isn’t forcing us to use Google.

 

[now i see it]

one judge says this and another says that

 

[thefrost]

I am not surprised by this at all.

 

[jecowa]

What about Firefox? I think Mozilla needs that Google search engine money more than Apple. It's not a good situation, but Google's money is probably very helpful for Firefox. I'm more worried about the Chromium monopoly than the Google search monopoly.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Now that it has the blessing of the judge, look for that $20 billion to increase in the coming year.

If I'm Apple, I tell Google the new price is $25 billion. What is Google going to do, balk? They need that search data. If it's worth $20 billion today, it's easily worth $25 billion tomorrow. And $30 billion in the coming years.

And if Apple wants to use Gemini? That's going to be a chunk as well.

The $20 billion isn’t a flat payment and it’s not driven by Apple saying, “Google, give me this!”. Google benefits from the ad revenue generated through searches conducted on Apple devices, and Apple, in turn, receives a portion of this revenue. So, as Google’s ad revenue rises, Apple’s portion of that also rises. It COULD be $30 billion next year without Apple doing anything, but not likely.

 

[Neil J. Squillante]

It's an interesting remedy that takes more aim at Android and Chrome than at Search. Google cannot force Android manufacturers to only install Chrome and exclude other browsers. Google cannot require the bundling of Google apps if manufacturers want to include the Play Store on their phones. Etc. But as noted above, it allows search traffic deals like the one with Apple.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

What about Firefox? I think Mozilla needs that Google search engine money more than Apple. It's not a good situation, but Google's money is probably very helpful for Firefox. I'm more worried about the Chromium monopoly than the Google search monopoly.

I think that’s part of why they ruled as they did. If they ruled that Google can’t make payments to Apple, then, similarly they wouldn’t be able to make payments to anyone else, including Firefox. Which is kinda how rules should be, applied across the board. Not just applied to the fruit company.

 

[jz0309]

Besides being barred from entering into exclusive search engine distribution contracts, Google will also need to share data with rival search engines. The DOJ had asked that Google be forced to provide data on how it decides what to surface based on a given search.

what does that actually mean? sharing data? what data? and how is that enforced/monitored?
DOJ request was at least somewhat clearer ...

Supposedly Google will appeal the monopoly ruling.
Keep the popcorn supply steady!

 

[Unregistered 4U]

It's an interesting remedy that takes more aim at Android and Chrome than at Search. Google cannot force Android manufacturers to only install Chrome and exclude other browsers. Google cannot require the bundling of Google apps if manufacturers want to include the Play Store on their phones. Etc. But as noted above, it allows search traffic deals like the one with Apple.

Something makes me think that while Google won’t require it, the manufacturers will still continue to do so because dealing with one vendor is a lot easier than dealing with one for Maps, another for… ummm other stuff?

 

[GioGiusi]

I can’t imagine how or why the deal still exists. Seems really dumb on Googles part. They have the best search engine by a mile. If they stopped paying tomorrow, what’s Apple going to do? They’re not going to update all their customers’ default search engine to something worse.

 

[Abazigal]

Now that it has the blessing of the judge, look for that $20 billion to increase in the coming year.

If I'm Apple, I tell Google the new price is $25 billion. What is Google going to do, balk? They need that search data. If it's worth $20 billion today, it's easily worth $25 billion tomorrow. And $30 billion in the coming years.

And if Apple wants to use Gemini? That's going to be a chunk as well.

My guess is that this amount is tied to the number of active users that Apple has. So as more people use Apple products, that’s more money Apple can charge Google because presumably, there’s more people who can potentially use Google search.

I am not sure how this quantum is affected by people like myself who have since switched to alternatives such as DDG, but by and large, you are all indirectly helping to make Apple more money just by virtue of continuing to use Apple products, even if you aren’t buying additional hardware.

 

[jz0309]

I can’t imagine how or why the deal still exists. Seems really dumb on Googles part. They have the best search engine by a mile. If they stopped paying tomorrow, what’s Apple going to do? They’re not going to update all their customers’ default search engine to something worse.

read this: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ontinue-with-conditions.2464511/post-34093690
and they could change the default search engine with the upcoming new phones ... and if they did, $$$$ loss for Google

 

[matthew12]

So basically nothing is happening here. Got it.

 

[SanderEvers]

Google is and was never the exclusive search engine, so that won't change. Also in the EU they already are required to offer a search engine choice. So yeah, the money going to Apple and especially Mozilla is still nice. Also it's better for competition if Google keeps Chrome.

 

[agsystems]

I only play a lawyer in this forum but this is a complete win for Google (and Apple $)

 

[ZipZilla]

Judge is an Obama appointee, but it makes sense. It's not anticompetitive, like say IE was on Windows back in the day, because anyone can easily change it to you Yahoo or Bing or whatever. It's just a product placement deal.

Now we need Gemini to fix Siri and all will be right with the world