Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., took to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9, 2025 at Apple Park Campus in Cupertino, California.
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apple Shares rose more than 3% in Tuesday’s extension transaction after a federal judge ruled it alphabet You can continue to pay to preload Google searches to your iPhone.
Although Apple wasn’t a party for the Search Monopoly Trial, the judge was considering banning Google from paying billions of dollars a year and becoming Apple’s default search engine for Safari browsers on iPhones, Macs and iPads.
“Google cannot be prohibited from making payments or providing other considerations to other distribution partners for the preload or placement of Google Search, Chrome, or its Genai products,” Judge Amit Mehta wrote in his decision.
“If you almost certainly cut your payments from Google, you can experience significant obstacles.
The groundbreaking case focused on Google’s advantages in the general search market, Google’s violations of the Sherman Act, and barriers to entries built by search engines.
However, the judge states that Google will be prohibited from entering or maintaining “exclusive agreements” related to preloading search engines or key apps on the device, specifying that Google cannot bundle Android services with revenue share agreements for Google search or terms regarding the acceptance of other Google apps or services.
According to the decision, Apple has stated that Google has signed its contract with the default search engine, which is “exclusive” as Google has been established as the default Aut-Box search engine.
However, Mehta limits Google’s payments and guarantees that the product will receive exclusive distributions, but he has not reached a ban on these payments entirely, revealing the possibility that both companies could attack new deals. According to the Ministry of Justice, the relief plan limits revenue sharing contracts to one year.
Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Now, the court is placing restrictions on how Google services are distributed, requiring that you share your search data with your rivals.” Google I said in a blog post. “There is concern about how these requirements will affect users and their privacy and we are reviewing our decisions in detail.”
The US Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Google in 2020, claiming that Google is maintaining its share in the general search market by setting strong challenger barriers, such as default search transactions. The U.S. District Court in Washington ruled last August that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software and Services, testified on Google’s behalf of potential remedies.
Tuesday’s application was the first time a judge had detailed the proposed relief package.
Analysts previously said it could take years before Apple is forced to make changes in response to the Google Suit ruling. Google said it challenges the ruling, and analysts say the relief trial could last up to two years. Google can also appeal to the outcome of a relief trial, and the Supreme Court can see it when the appeal is exhausted.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai (L) and Apple CEO Tim Cook (R) will speak during a roundtable meeting with American and Indian business leaders in the Eastern Room of the White House in Washington, DC on June 23, 2023.
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Default agreement
Google has contracts with companies like Samsung and browser maker Mozilla, which will be the platform’s default search engine, but the most important and biggest “default contract” deal is with Apple. According to documents discussed in the court, Google paid all its partners a total of $26 billion in 2021 to become the default search engine.
Google paid for highlighting traffic from Apple’s billion iPhone users to the search engine. Revenue is important to the growth of Apple’s services business.
In addition to paying for licenses, Apple uses Google, so Google is the best search engine and prioritization states that it is a priority to provide the best tool for its customers.
Apple also has an option if it cannot make Google the default search engine. For example, earlier this year, Apple’s Cue told the courtroom as a Google witness that iPhone makers were also considering adding AI search engines as an option for their software.
“Cue’s testimony establishes that Google’s high revenue sharing payments prevent Apple from trying to acquire for itself any ad rent flowing through the Safari Browser’s default search box,” the judge wrote in a filing Tuesday.
Apple’s revenue from Google is reported in financial terms as advertising revenue reported as part of the company’s service business, including Applecare Guarantee, cloud services such as iCloud, and digital content such as apps and Apple Music.
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