Judge Again Denies Apple's Attempt to Intervene in Google Search Engine Lawsuit

[gavroche]

I know exactly what is going on; Apple made deals with a company doing illegal things. Time to butt out.

First, it’s your opinion that they are doing illegal things. A court will decide that. You aren’t entitled to pretend your opinion is a fact we must all bow down to.

Second, Apple is a signatory to their contract. It literally by definition is their business as well.

 

[BaldiMac]

First, it’s your opinion that they are doing illegal things. A court will decide that.

The court already decided that Google did “illegal things”.

 

[surferfb]

I think we all can agree Google should continue to pay Apple $20 billion a year as punishment without getting to set the default search - everybody wins! 🤣

 

[BBCWatcher]

How will Apple replace all that lost revenue and profit?

Somewhere in Cupertino there's a financial planning chart containing 2 magic words: Candy Crush.

 

[turbineseaplane]

it’s your opinion that they are doing illegal things. A court will decide that.

A court already did!

Last year, Google was found guilty of violating antitrust law

 

[svish]

Will be very interesting to see how this will play out. Apple is getting large amounts from Google and this is at risk!

 

[dampfnudel]

Yeah, it would really sting to lose the easiest $20B Apple gets each year.

 

[dampfnudel]

Good.

Google has already been found guilty of being a monopolist. Apple needs to mind its own business.

When a “gift” of $20B annually is in jeopardy, you know Tim will try to make it his business.

 

[0049190]

Does this logic apply to all the Android manufacturers and most of the browser makers as well? Because Google has been a monopoly paying companies to be default search for decades.

Or is this just about sticking it to Apple? Who has not been found to have done anything wrong in a court of law with respect to this issue.

If you sell me a stolen car, the law says that car does not then belong to me. Even though I’ve done nothing wrong and didn’t know the car was stolen. That is because you cannot profit from a crime.

This is not about “sticking it to Apple”. It’s about stamping out illegal anti-competitive practices.

Apple may have done nothing wrong but I’m sure they have expert lawyers who should have advised them that this was a dubious process.

I suggested giving the money to charity rather than giving it back to Google because I don’t think Google should profit from this.

 

[freedomlinux]

Seems a bit dishonest not to let your investors know that such a massive percentage of your profit hinges on shaky deals.

This should have been split this out in their earnings report instead of it being lumped into "services". They did it to obfuscate, because they know it looked bad.

Regardless whether this particular deal is legal and/or ethical, I agree that the financial reporting here is concerning.

This is known as a Customer Concentration Risk, where a large portion of your revenue depends on a single client or small group of clients. There is no exact definition of "concentration" but different sources put it in the 10-20% range. If your huge client goes bankrupt, switches to a different supplier, terminates contracts, etc it can be devastating to your business.

My opinions:

• Burying a $20bn deal into the "Services" line is incorrect, especially because it does not fit in with the rest of the category (ie: ancillary services related to hardware services or other digital goods sold to customers)
• The undisclosed concentration risk is improper. While I understand how Apple doesn't want to identify what the deal is (for PR, contractual, or other secrecy reasons), there should be something like "Promotional agreements with Company Y"

 

[Wanted797]

Apple wants to step in here because if it goes though they lose $20bn a year.

Google doesn’t care cause if they get told they can’t have these agreements. They stand to save $20bn a year.

If anything I bet Google is hoping it goes though. They might lose a few users if Apple has a prompt to choose your search engine. But most people will still chose google.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

First, it’s your opinion that they are doing illegal things. A court will decide that. You aren’t entitled to pretend your opinion is a fact we must all bow down to.

Second, Apple is a signatory to their contract. It literally by definition is their business as well.

The court has already decided, Google is a convicted monopolist. They are deciding the punishment and restitution.

Google has an illegal monopoly on search, US judge finds

A U.S. judge ruled on Monday that Google violated antitrust law, spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world's default search engine, the first big win for federal authorities taking on Big Tech's market dominance.

www.reuters.com

 

[SnowPenguin]

Reduce iPhone storage to 64gb, and charge by the gigabyte for anything higher.

iPhones used to have 16Gb of storage, so let’s start from there

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

$20B annually for what? Changing a setting that costs Apple literally nothing? Seems more like welfare than hard earned money.
A big part of Apple's wealth is built on shady deals like this and ridiculously high upgrade prices forced on their customers.

I wonder how long "record profits" will be part of Apple's earnings reports (and now we know why).

 

[deevey]

Good.

Google has already been found guilty of being a monopolist. Apple needs to mind its own business.

They get paid a couple of Billion - it literally IS their business

 

[WarmWinterHat]

They get paid a couple of Billion - it literally IS their business

They are getting paid by a convicted company that was doing illegal things, which they are in the process of being punished for. They don't get a say, just like I wouldn't get a say if my tenet was paying their rent with ill-gotten money.

 

[I7guy]

They are getting paid by a convicted company that was doing illegal things, which they are in the process of being punished for. They don't get a say, just like I wouldn't get a say if my tenet was paying their rent with ill-gotten money.

Never say never. Absolute arguments usually fall down at some point.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Never say never. Absolute arguments usually fall down at some point.

I didn't say never. I didn't even allude to the concept of never.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

They are getting paid by a convicted company that was doing illegal things, which they are in the process of being punished for. They don't get a say, just like I wouldn't get a say if my tenet was paying their rent with ill-gotten money.

You make it sound like Google is so bad. Brings to mind another example of someone convicted of crimes but who was gifted a very high position in the world. Apparently "criminal" is the new, hip thing.

 

[oink_oink]

Oh no! Apple will have to make up the difference somehow. Will they start selling macbooks with keyboard, battery, and touchpad as optional upgrades?

 

[9081094]

Or the company that has a over $1 billion to lose every year

20 billion to be correct 😅. It’s all about the money 💰

 

[thebarrkbyte]

usa is strange with this monopoly rules. i came to america to work for a company and live in a small town managing their business here. they only have one internet provider and city hall says it is an allowed monopoly as i complained due to this provider charging double what i did in a larger city, but apple can't make google the default search engine on their phone with a money contract? bizarre laws.

i paid google fiber $74 a month for fiber connection in city for 1Gbps sync. but in this small town it is $186 a month for just internet at 1Gbps async hfc

 

[Saturn007]

Apple:

“We're the privacy-centered company.

That’s why we get $20 billion a year from Google, whose business model is monetizing people's searches, browsing, and personal data!”

 

[I7guy]

Apple:

“We're the privacy-centered company.

That’s why we get $20 billion a year from Google, whose business model is monetizing people's searches, browsing, and personal data!”

Maybe apple should ban google?

 

[cocky jeremy]

Leave Google as the default anyway just to throw a middle finger at the government.