(CNN) — Every time you type a search in Apple’s Safari browser, say on an iPhone, it’s likely that it’s Google that returns the results.
You can tell Safari to choose a different search engine, but in practice most people tend to stick with Google by default.
You may know that Google pays Apple huge sums of money every year for this prime placement. What you may not know is how many.
As of May 2021, Google was paying Apple more than $1 billion a month, according to the US government, and up to $20 billion in total in 2022 – just for the privilege of being Apple’s leading search engine. ‘Apple.
These staggering figures, revealed this week, come from a blockbuster antitrust lawsuit against Google that has just entered its final stages. They underscore the enormous stakes in a case that could revolutionize the way millions of Americans search for information online and, some say, reshape the high-stakes battle for artificial intelligence dominance.
The Justice Department launched its final assault on Google’s search engine dominance on Thursday, closing a case that began during the Trump administration and attempting to persuade a federal judge that Google had illegally monopolized the search industry. online search using payments like those made to Apple. .
Closing arguments in the case will continue through Friday, and District Judge Amit Mehta is expected to issue a ruling later this year after sitting through a grueling 10-week trial last fall, which took place in largely behind closed doors.
The result could have far-reaching effects on the tech industry, serving as a barometer not only of the billions Google pays to Apple, wireless carriers and other device makers, but also of a veritable pipeline of technology antitrust cases that come before the courts.
Government lawyers in the case say Google maintained an illegal monopoly through a web of contracts that made its search engine the default on millions of devices and browsers around the world.
According to the DOJ, these contracts allowed Google to create an unassailable search business that collected ever more data revealing what users were searching for – creating a feedback loop that allowed Google to further refine its product over time. to the detriment of fair competition. At trial, Microsoft told the court that Google was trying to turn this search data advantage into an artificial intelligence advantage by training its models on large volumes of search queries that no one else has access to.
-Google has argued that consumers choose its search engine because it is simply the best, not because of anticompetitive behavior, and that Google’s search helps support its Android operating system, which competes with Apple . Nothing stopped Apple from choosing another default search partner, Google says.
But DOJ lawyers questioned the logic of Google’s payments and contracts. If Google’s product is truly better than the competition, they ask, and if it’s as easy to change search engines as Google claims, then why spend tens of billions of dollars a year to be the default search engine everywhere?
“Microsoft couldn’t do it”
Throughout the proceedings, Mehta kept his own cards close to the vest. At the end of the trial last fall, he told both sides that he was truly undecided.
“I can tell you, as I sit here today, I have no idea what I’m going to do,” Mehta said last November.
Mehta maintained that routine Thursday, asking tough questions of both sides during the first day of closing arguments.
At one point, Mehta pointed out to Google lawyer John Schmidtlein that to topple Google’s dominant position, a hypothetical rival would not only have to invest billions in a viable alternative search engine, but also billions to rival Google’s contracts with Apple and others.
“If that’s what it takes for someone to unseat Google as the default search engine, wouldn’t the authors of the Sherman Act be concerned?” asked Mehta, referring to a key U.S. antitrust law. “I can’t imagine a world in which another competitor, especially a new competitor, could do this. Microsoft couldn’t do it.
Schmidtlein responded that U.S. antitrust law protects the competitive process, not competitors.
It’s unclear how soon District Judge Amit Mehta might issue a ruling after this week’s proceedings. But if it sides with the U.S. government and finds fault with Google, that would trigger a separate proceeding to determine what penalties Google might face.
The-CNN-Wire
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