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Monday’s ruling against Google, which found the company had not complied with U.S. antitrust laws, will redefine its current agreement with Apple, which currently uses its search engine as the default for products it makes.
The trial against Alphabet Inc’s Google began last September, with U.S. authorities accusing its search engine of harming competition by paying millions of dollars to be the default search engine on web and mobile browsers.
After analyzing a series of testimonies and actions in recent months that demonstrated Google’s violations, the U.S. federal court ruled that it had determined that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, an 1890 measure prohibiting monopolies in the United States.
According to the ruling, which was reproduced by the New York Times and other media, Google enjoys a monopoly because “it has an 89.2% market share for general search services, rising to 94.9% on mobile devices.”
According to a complaint filed during Donald Trump’s administration that led to the ruling, this could be due to a partnership agreement signed years ago with Apple that allowed it to block possible competitors such as Bing or DuckDuckGo.
The victory against Google was considered a “historic victory for the American people,” in the words of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Meanwhile, Google’s president of global affairs, Kent Walker, announced that he intended to appeal the court’s decision.
“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that it should not be easily accessible,” said the company’s executives. The company will go to trial again with the U.S. Department of Justice this fall. Specifically, on September 9, after being accused of violating antitrust laws in the field of digital advertising.
In this sense, it is worth remembering that its Information Services Agreement (ISA) with Apple, in force since 2002, allows it to be the default search engine in products made by the Cupertino company. Therefore, this ruling could change the way Apple offers Google services on its devices.
In early October last year, Bloomberg announced that Apple was considering changing Google’s search engine and setting DuckDuckGo as the default search engine for Safari to encourage the private browsing function it provides.
Meanwhile, analyst Mark Gurman announced that Apple plans to expand the integration of its own “next generation” search engine, known internally as Pegasus, although he admitted that its technology would not reach the scope of what Google can offer.
Gurman now says Apple’s commitment to artificial intelligence (AI) technology in services such as digital assistant Siri shows the brand has “moved away from its reliance on traditional search”.
In this sense, he recalled, by integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT functionality into its software, and planning to do the same with Google’s Gemini, “the company can direct consumers to artificial intelligence and Siri instead of web browsers”.
In this way, the iPhone maker can establish non-exclusive agreements with providers of artificial intelligence tools and “chatbots,” including Google, that don’t run afoul of the U.S. government, according to the recent ruling.
Likewise, the journalist suggested that as an alternative to the default Google search engine, Apple could offer different search engine options when the user first turns on the device. This is what currently happens with devices sold in the EU, which offer alternatives during initial configuration.
In this way, Google will continue to be an option to choose from, although it will coexist with alternatives such as Microsoft Bing or DuckDuckGo, accessible from the start, as the process that must be performed to change the default search engine is currently more tedious.
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