Longtime Apple executive Eddy Cue defended the corporate’s deal to maintain Google because the default search engine on its smartphones and browsers during his closely watched testimony on the Big Tech firm’s antitrust trial on Tuesday.
Cue, Apple’s senior vice chairman of services and an in depth confidant of CEO Tim Cook, was arguably probably the most high-profile witness so far on the trial, where Google has faced intense scrutiny over its top-dollar payments to secure default status.
Google might be paying as much as $19 billion per 12 months to secure default status on Apple devices, in keeping with estimates by wealth management firm Bernstein cited by CNBC.
Cue told the court that Apple had chosen Google as its default search engine since it was far and away the most effective available option for its devices.
“There definitely wasn’t a legitimate alternative we might have gone to on the time,” Cue testified in Washington, D.C., in keeping with Bloomberg.
He added that Apple has had no have to develop its own in-house search engine attributable to the standard of Google’s product.
Eddy Cue is Apple’s services chief.Getty Images
Cue’s testimony backed a key defense by Google’s lawyers, who say consumers go for the corporate’s search engine since it is a high-quality service.
Justice Department attorneys have said Google spends greater than $10 billion on annual payments to varied partners, including Apple and mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon, to realize dominance over online search.
The Apple bigwig also testified that a clause in its take care of Google states that Big Tech firms will “support and defend” the pact against legal threats.
Cue admitted that Google’s legal team pushed for the clause’s inclusion during contract renegotiations in 2016.
Google became the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser in 2002 and has kept that status ever since.
The DOJ has argued that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over online search.AP
Cue said the deal was most recently renewed in 2021, in keeping with Bloomberg.
Much of Cue’s testimony was conducted in a closed-court session since it pertained to sensitive information related to the businesses’ operations.
Google retains a roughly 90% market share, dwarfing all other rivals. Gabriel Weinberg, the founding father of privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, previously testified that Google’s default deals with leading smartphone makers and mobile carriers had
He’s the second Apple executive to testify on the trial, following last week’s appearance by Apple’s artificial intelligence boss John Giannandrea.
Kent Walker (left) is Google’s president of worldwide affairs.AP
The antitrust trial, which kicked off its third week, has faced criticism over an absence of public transparency.
Last week, the DOJ yanked trial exhibits it had published to a public website after Google complained to the trial’s presiding Judge Amit Mehta.
