Google's £16 billion deal with Apple under scrutiny in US court

In 2023, the United States Department of Justice brought charges against Google, part of the Alphabet holding. The corporations were accused of monopolistic behavior in the internet search and advertising markets.

This trial is still ongoing, and Google and its partners are obligated to make documents available that reveal their business's behind-the-scenes actions. These, in turn, are extremely interesting.

£16 billion a year translates to nearly £1.4 billion a month and almost £44 million a day. All this is so that new iPhones, iPads, and Macs direct users to Google when looking for information.

Yet, these £16 billion a year do not guarantee exclusivity. Users can still change the default search engine to Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, or Ecosia. Google secured itself as the only priority on the list of available options for these huge sums.

These data concern only 2022, and these amounts could have increased since then. Only in 2023 did Bing begin to pose more serious competition to Google, thanks to integration with artificial intelligence Copilot. Currently, Microsoft seems to have the technological edge in the search engine market, though it still lacks effective methods of reaching users. Google accepts these high fees mainly to maintain its position in the market.

This battle is mainly about the search engine and online advertising market in the United States, where Apple dominates the smartphone market. Tech companies know that most users do not change the default settings on their smartphones, which can decide survival in the market.