Apple has filed a motion in the United States v. Google antitrust case seeking limited intervention as a proposed defendant, as well as a declaration signed by Apple Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue.
Both come down to Apple asking the court to allow continued cooperation and revenue sharing between the two giants, in the search space.
We obtained a copy of the declaration for you here.
Previously, the US District Court for the Court of Columbia Judge Amit Mehta found that both search service and search advertising market have been illegally monopolized by Google.
Now Apple has moved to intervene to ensure it is not prevented from continuing to receive payments from Google for making its search engine default in the Safari browser. The value of this deal was around $22 billion in 2022.
“Catastrophic,” is how Apple’s filing describes the possibility of this money flow stopping, at the same time arguing that should the court impose a broad prohibition on commercial agreements between the two corporations, the result would, among other things, be the “stifling of AI development.”
Apple also wants the court to reject the remedies proposed by the plaintiffs (proposed final judgment, PFJ) as directly impinging on its independent business decisions.
The PFJ is “aimed squarely” at ruling out the possibility of new contracts between it and Google during 10 years, Apple said. The motion also looks to stop the PFJ infringing on its “protectable property interest in its right to contract with Google.”
Eddy Cue’s declaration describes the situation that would arise from the proposed measures as “two unacceptable choices” for Apple, should it be forced to stop getting money from Google for making its search engine the Safari default.
Apple could allow users to still choose Google Search, but without Apple earning billions each year as a result. Cue states that this is “unacceptable” since Google would benefit from “accessing” its users for free.
The other route would be for Apple to remove the Google option from Safari search altogether, and here, too, according to Cue, the tech behemoth is “thinking of the users.”
“Because customers prefer Google, removing it as an option would harm both Apple and its customers,” writes this Apple executive.
Both the motion and the declaration reveal that Apple does not plan to enter the general search market.
