Google Appeals Antitrust Ruling, Says Apple Chose Its Search Engine 'Fair and Square'

[MacRumors]

Google today appealed a 2024 ruling that found it violated antitrust law by paying to be the default search engine on iPhones. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Google said the district court made an error when concluding that Google's search success was due to anything other than competition on merit.

Google suggested it surpassed competition through better innovation, more investments, and "just working harder," which is why Apple chose Google Search as its default search option on Apple devices.

Whether or not Google has monopoly power, Google did nothing that "harm[ed] the competitive process." It did not impede its rivals' opportunity to make—or Apple's and Mozilla's ability to choose—a better offer. Indeed, there is no finding—or even any evidence—that Google's customers would have chosen a rival, even in the absence of the challenged agreements. Google just prevailed in the marketplace fair and square.

The filing points out that Apple was free to distribute and promote rival search engines, with Google highlighting the alternative browser options that Apple offers in the Safari settings. Google suggests that any "exclusivity" interpreted by the district court was Apple's choice for "sound business reasons."

Google is asking the appeals court to undo the remedies that were put in place to address its search monopoly. Google was told to share search data, offer information on user interaction, and syndicate its results to competing companies, which it will need to start doing barring a successful appeal.

While Google is aiming for the entire ruling to be thrown out, Google also wants generative AI companies like OpenAI excluded from receiving data. Google says AI products "did not even exist" during the period covered in the DoJ's filing, so it makes no sense for them to receive search data. Google further said that AI companies are "already succeeding as wildly as any technology in human history without any need to free-ride on Google's success."

Google pays Apple billions of dollars each year to be the default Safari search engine, and the deal was a major component in the antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice brought against Google. Apple and Google's search engine deal could have been addressed in the remedies applied to Google, but the court did not prevent Google from making search agreements.

While Google is barred from entering into exclusive contracts for search engine distribution, it is still allowed to pay Apple to be a search engine option on iPhone. The DoJ also wanted Google to be forced to sell its Chrome browser and possibly offload the Android operating system, but neither of those consequences were implemented.

The remedies in the DoJ vs. Google case went into effect on February 3, but Google hasn't been required to provide data yet because implementation details have not been worked out. The five-member Technical Committee set up by the judge overseeing the case has not outlined license terms or privacy safeguards, nor has criteria for which companies qualify as competitors been established.

Oral arguments for Google's appeal haven't been scheduled, so we're unlikely to hear more on the issue until late 2026 or early 2027.

Article Link: Google Appeals Antitrust Ruling, Says Apple Chose Its Search Engine 'Fair and Square'

 

[germanbeer007]

FYI monopolies are not inherently illegal in USA. And Google just has a way better product.

 

[dannyyankou]

I don’t want to use Google, but sometimes I have no choice. I try to use Bing at work, but I find myself switching back to Google way too often because the thing I was looking for wasn’t even on the first couple pages.

 

[jz0309]

almost 2 years later ...
It isn't over, til, it's over ... lawyers the winners, as usual

 

[superiska123]

Wow, talk about an oversimplification. I can't imagine many (or any?) other companies would be able to offer Apple the billions of dollars Google is offering. I've been using Kagi as my search engine for months now and the search experience is far superior to the current ad-infested Google Search... But it's not even available as a native option on Apple devices.

 

[sw1tcher]

In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Google said the district court made an error when concluding that Google's search success was due to anything other than competition on merit.

Google suggested it surpassed competition through better innovation, more investments, and "just working harder," which is why Apple chose Google Search as its default search option on Apple devices.

If Apple freely and without any outside influence decided to make Google the default search option, then Alphabet wasted hundreds of billions over the years by paying Apple and shareholders should sue Alphabet for mismanagement.

But that's not what happened.

 

[I7guy]

My favorite saying: “it ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”.

 

[Ja50n]

Hey Google, pay me billions of dollars and I’ll choose Google Search “fair and square” too! Until that happens, though, I’ve switched to DDG.

 

[B4U]

"Fair and Square", after we paid them. 🤣

 

[Abydos]

it ain't over ill the fat lady sings

 

[tomtad]

Why’s Google paying so much money then. Can anyone answer this?

 

[jjudson]

If I want to find something, I use Duck Duck Go.

If I REALLY want to find something, I use Google...

 

[MacBH928]

I hate google just as much as Richard stallman does, but if you can easily switch the default search engine, its not a monopoly.

 

[germanbeer007]

If Apple freely and without any outside influence decided to make Google the default search option, then Alphabet wasted hundreds of billions over the years by paying Apple and shareholders should sue Alphabet for mismanagement.

But that's not what happened.

quick, someone sue McDonald's for offering burger coupons.
and microsoft for paying twitch streamers to play their games.

 

[MacBH928]

Why’s Google paying so much money then. Can anyone answer this?

yes, most people do not even know what they are using to make a search. They actually think searching the internet is called Google. If Google does not pay, Microsoft will pay a much smaller amount say like $50 million (compared to Google's $20 billion) and will be the default search engine.

Google will lose 1.5 billion search customers that they can serve ads and hoard their search data during the 2-6 years of that individual device's lifetime. They pay $13 per user, if they can make out of that user $26 over the course of 2 years in ad revenue they will double their investment of $20B to $40B.

 

[ImageWrangler]

If Apple freely and without any outside influence decided to make Google the default search option, then Alphabet wasted hundreds of billions over the years by paying Apple and shareholders should sue Alphabet for mismanagement.

But that's not what happened.

Lest we not forget Apple developed, supposedly, per a couple leaks, a very good internet search engine that, while it may not rival Google, what with all of Google's AI garbage now, may be preferable as a search engine. Has to be better than Bing, nothing is worse than Bing, or anything Microslop.

 

[germanbeer007]

Why’s Google paying so much money then. Can anyone answer this?

to advertise its search engine fair and square like everyone else.

 

[goobot]

Lest we not forget Apple developed, supposedly, per a couple leaks, a very good internet search engine that, while it may not rival Google, what with all of Google's AI garbage now, may be preferable as a search engine. Has to be better than Bing, nothing is worse than Bing, or anything Microslop.

Looking at things like Siri and Apple Intelligence, there is no way Apple could compete with google in search. It would be another bing

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

They are basically paying Apple to stay out of the search business.

Monopolists paying other companies to not launch products is never going to be good for the end user.

 

[sully54]

Judge: "your deal with apple violates anti-trust law"

Google: DISREGARD

 

[noraa]

When Google first came out, it was by far the best search engine out there. And when Apple made a deal with Google to make it the default engine in iOS, it was definitely because it was the best at the time.

However, in the many years since that deal was made it’s hard to ignore the drop in quality of Google search, thus negating the “Apple just chose the best search engine” argument. In addition, you can make a pretty compelling argument (one that obviously already worked given the outcome of the antitrust trial) that the search deal helped turn Google into a monopoly. And that even as the quality of Google results dropped, it was harder for better engines to make headway as a result of the deal b/w Apple and Google.

On the flip side, given that Apple and Google are two separate entities, and that Apple didn’t just choose Google out of the goodness of their heart, or a desire to make Google a monopoly, but because Google was paying them boat loads of money, I think it is a bit of a stretch to say Apple and Google conspired to help make Google a monopoly. Obviously things would be very different if Apple made their own search engine and prioritized it over others with the express intent of stifling competition; but that is obviously not the case here (and the big thing that makes this different from the Microsoft antitrust ruling decades ago).

With all of that being said, even if there wasn’t a conspiracy b/w Google and Apple, Google obviously knew that by paying Apple they would get the coveted default search engine spot, which would make it harder for other search engines to compete.

Thus, in the end, I’m really glad I’m not the person who has to make the “are they or are they not a monopoly” decision!

 

[buddhistMonkey]

What's supposed to be the alternative to Google… Bing? Even Microsoft employees use Google instead of Bing, it's just better. The search wars have ended, and Google won a long time ago. This is like forcing car stereo manufacturers to support the Zune.

 

[Abazigal]

Why’s Google paying so much money then. Can anyone answer this?

My guess:

1) Defaults ultimately still matter. Yes, the majority of users like will still have chosen google search anyways, and Google wanted to eliminate any remaining chance that they might try a competing search engine alternative (however minuscule that may be).

While you can switch your default search engine, it's still limited to a few choices, and doesn't seem to support the newer options like Kagi. The best customers use iOS, most iOS users use Safari, Apple controls Safari, and so Google has to go where the money is.

2) It's an incentive to Apple to not bother with coming up with their own search engine offering.

Part of me believes that when Apple replaced google maps with their own maps app in 2012, it traumatised Google so much that their executives continue to suffer from PTSD even today. It taught them them for all their market share, for all their profits, and for all the power they might wield in Silicon Valley, they are just another app on iOS. One that Apple has no qualms about excising or replacing at the snap of a finger. It showed them who really held all the power in that relationship.

Would Apple have done differently had Google not paid them billions a year? Maybe, maybe not, but it seemed that the prospect of FAFO was a risk that Google executives would rather not take.

That to me is Apple's greatest strength - their ecosystem. Google Maps was good, and they had no issues with getting rid of it in favour of their own mapping solution, which while vastly inferior at the start, quickly improved to become a credible alternative today (in developed countries at least). I remember reading somewhere that in the US, more users use the Maps app over Google Maps, in part because Maps is the pre-installed default and is integrated with iOS to an extent that Google will never enjoy.

 

[NightfallOrchid]

Wasn’t Google already pretty much the default search engine anyway, regardless of any deal with Apple? There’s barely any real competition to this day. I personally switched to Kagi a couple of years ago, but a paid search engine is a tough sell for most people, and honestly probably not worth it, unless you really spend a lot of time online

 

[mrochester]

They are basically paying Apple to stay out of the search business.

Monopolists paying other companies to not launch products is never going to be good for the end user.

It’s almost like googles entire business model is anti-competitive:

Pay Apple to not create a search engine.
Pay android oems to not create app stores.
Force android oems into restrictive contracts so they can’t make phones with forked versions of android and google android at the same time.
Force android oems to take all google apps even if they only want some.
Use profits from advertising to subsidise other ventures which distorts those other markets.