Google Pays Apple 'Billions' Per Year To Not Build Own Search Engine, Says Lawsuit
Supervillains aren't born in a day and often work together to support each other's goals. In unrelated news, suspicions about a secret deal between Apple and Google appear to have found some validation based on a new lawsuit.
Turns out, Google pays Apple to keep the iPhone maker away from search engine business. To Google's credit, who wouldn't like monopoly? The details of the deal were revealed in a new class-action lawsuit in the US that claims this agreement is illegal and violates American anti-trust laws.
The deal also ensures Google's presence within the Apple ecosystem. For instance, Apple's Safari browser also uses the Google search engine by default as opposed to something made by Apple - something a company of Apple's scale could build very easily.
Google Apple duopoly
While it's unclear how much Google pays Apple, a 2020 report by The New York Times claimed that the amount could be anything between $8-12 billion each year.
The lawsuit filed in California alleges that Google even shares a portion of its search engine profits (mostly generated through ads) with Apple in exchange for default search engine treatment on Apple devices like iPhone and iPad.
Most disturbing aspect of this deal is the claim that both companies actively work together to suppress any potential competitors in the search engine business through acquisitions and covert measures.
Also read:?Facebook 'Knew What It Was Doing' And Acted Irresponsibly, Says Google's Ex-CEO
The lawsuit wants Google and Apple to be broken up into smaller entities to avoid the current duopoly nightmare that critics claim stifles not only competition but innovation and positions Big Tech as the only medium for all services to come.
If you didn't know, you can change the default search engine on Apple devices in settings and choose from Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, and more.
You could use many other search engines like Startpage, searX, Qwant, MetaGer, etc. that take active interest in protecting the interests and privacy of its users.
Also read:?Apps On Apple iPhone Track You As Much As Android Apps, Oxford Study Reveals
What do you think - has Big Tech monopoly gone out of hand? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.??For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
References
Briggs, Z. (2022, January 6). Apple and Google Have Secret Deal, According to US Lawsuit; Meta Appeal CMA Decision to Sell GIPHY. ExchangeWire.Com.?
