The crux of the state's antitrust case against Alphabet (GOOGL) -) and its search engine Google rests on testimony of an executive from one of its biggest collaborators, and rivals, in Apple (AAPL) -).
Google handles over 90% of search queries worldwide, according to Oberlo, and it pays a pretty penny to keep it that way.
Related: The cost Google pays to maintain its dominance comes into focus in DOJ trial
The tech company — which started off as just a search engine, but has since morphed into much more — pays about $10 billion annually to Apple and other smartphone makers to keep its spot as the world's most dominant search engine, according to the Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against the company.
On Tuesday, Sept. 26, Eddy Cue, Apple senior vice president of services, is slated to testify all day in federal court. Cue reportedly negotiated the deal between Google and Apple to make the former Apple's default search engine on iPhones and other gadgets, and he is expected to defend the deal in court.
The state intends to argue that Google uses its deep pockets to convince big tech companies like Apple and Samsung to keep its search engine as the default, in turn squeezing out smaller competitors like DuckDuckGo and Dogpile.
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But Cue is expected to defend the deal in court, saying "he believes that Google is the best search engine and that users still have the option to switch their default. He'll also say that Apple doesn't make its own search engine because Google's is already there and they consider it the best," according to CNBC.
But CNBC reporter Steve Kovach also points out that Cue has an incentive to testify in this manner because the billions in annual revenue Apple receives from Google for its default search position goes to the Apple Services segment that Cue is the head of.
According to analysts at Bernstein, Google will pay Apple about $19 billion this year to be the default search engine on Apple products.
Check out Kovach's full comments in the video below.
.@Apple's Eddy Cue is set to testify today in the government's antitrust case against $GOOGL. @CNBC's Steve Kovach joins with the latest: pic.twitter.com/da4lKncvDv
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) September 26, 2023
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