The $20 Billion Handshake That Survived an Antitrust War

The handshake deal between Google and Apple, worth an estimated $20 billion a year, has survived one of the biggest antitrust wars in U.S. history. A federal judge’s decision to permit the continuation of these payments for default search placement is a stunning victory for the two most influential companies in technology.
The government had portrayed this arrangement as the cornerstone of an illegal monopoly, a massive payment designed to lock out all competition from the lucrative iPhone user base. Their goal was to sever this financial tie, believing it would force Apple to consider other search providers on their merits, not their deep pockets.
However, Judge Amit Mehta sided with the companies’ arguments about market stability. He feared that cutting off the payments would cause “crippling” harm to Apple’s business and potentially lead to negative consequences for consumers, a risk he was unwilling to take.
As a result, the powerful financial bond that ties Google’s search engine to Apple’s Safari browser remains intact. This outcome demonstrates the immense difficulty of breaking up deeply entrenched commercial relationships, even when a court has determined they are part of an unlawful scheme to maintain a monopoly.