A court has ruled that payments made by Google to Apple, Samsung, and others to make Google the default search engine on their respective platforms were illegal.
An antitrust court has found Google illegally sustained a monopoly over online search, blocking other rivals and competitors in the process.
A judge ruled that some $26 billion paid out to platforms " foreclose a substantial portion of the general search services market and impair rivals’ opportunities to compete." Through this monopoly, Google has been able to inflate the price of online advertising.
Google in hot water
The judge in the ruling said, "The trial evidence firmly established that Google’s monopoly power, maintained by the exclusive distribution agreements, has enabled Google to increase text ads prices without any meaningful competitive constraint."
Google plans to appeal the decision.
As for iPhone users, it could mean a big shift when searching online on iOS 18 and beyond. While users can opt to use any search engine, Google ships as the default option thanks to the aforementioned payments. If the case against Google sticks, it could mean future versions of iOS present users with a choice of multiple engines without a default setting. The same process has been adopted in the EU with web browsers, where Apple now presents users with Safari and 12 other alternatives based on popularity when a user opens the app for the first time.