A class-action lawsuit has been filed against antitrust claims that Apple and Google violated U.S. antitrust laws in the course of mutual transactions, including using Google’s search engine as the default payment for Apple products. The complaint stated that Google and Apple have reached an agreement that Apple will abandon the development of its own search engine to avoid competition with Google.
In addition, it also said that the two parties have also reached a secret agreement-Google will share its search profits with Apple, and Apple will give Google preferential treatment on all Apple devices. It is said that by doing so, the two companies jointly suppressed the competitive pressure from small competitors and effectively squeezed them out of the search engine market. The complaint pointed out that due to this so-called collusion, advertising costs are higher than in the competition system.
The complaint also stated that these agreements were reached in regular secret meetings between Apple and Google executives. It is understood that this lawsuit requires the cancellation of the US$1 billion paid by Google to Apple. In addition, it is also required to ban non-competitive agreements between Google and Apple, profit-sharing agreements, Google’s preferential treatment on Apple devices, and Google’s payments to Apple.
Finally, the plaintiff also demanded that Google and Apple be split into separate companies in accordance with the precedent of Standard Oil splitting into Exxon, Mobile, Conoco, Amoco, Sohio, Chevron and other companies. However, the comparison with Standard Oil should be skeptical.
When the lawsuit was filed under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the company controlled 91% of U.S. petroleum production and approximately 84% of final petroleum and petroleum product sales. Apple’s share of the US mobile market is less than 50%, and its share of the computing market is even lower-less than 10%.
In the past ten years, there have been only a few recorded face-to-face meetings between the CEOs of Apple and Google. In addition, both Google and Apple said that users can choose to use other engines if they wish.
In addition, contrary to the claims in the lawsuit, Apple claims that it has its own advertising business, which is used in the App Store. In addition, it also has its own Internet search engine for Siri and Spotlight searches-but there is no search engine available on the Internet.