Alphabet Inc. reportedly paid Apple Inc. $20 billion in 2022 for Google to remain the default search engine in the Safari browser, as revealed in recently unsealed court documents from the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google.
This deal is central to the case, where antitrust enforcers argue that Google has unlawfully monopolized the online search and related advertising market. Closing arguments in the case are scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with a decision expected later this year.
Both Google and Apple had sought to keep the payment amount private. During the trial last fall, Apple executives stated that Google paid “billions” without specifying an exact figure. However, a Google witness later revealed that Google pays Apple 36% of the revenue it earns from search ads.
The court documents filed on Tuesday, ahead of the closing arguments, mark the first public confirmation of the figures by Apple’s senior vice president of services, Eddy Cue. Neither company discloses such numbers in their securities filings. The documents also highlighted the significance of these payments to Apple’s financial performance. For example, in 2020, Google’s payments to Apple made up 17.5% of the iPhone maker’s operating income.
The agreement with Apple is particularly crucial for Google as it secures the search engine's position on the most widely used smartphone in the US.
Initially, Apple agreed to use Google in the Safari browser in 2002 at no cost. However, they later decided to share revenue generated from search advertising. By May 2021, this arrangement meant that Google was paying Apple over $1 billion a month for its default status, as stated by prosecutors in the filing.
