Google’s Billion-Dollar Apple Search Deal Deemed Illegal

A U.S. federal judge ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by maintaining monopoly power in search and advertising through default-search agreements, including paying Apple about $20B annually and sharing significant revenue with Mozilla. The court rejected Google’s argument that the deals are non-exclusive, citing Apple’s incentives and Google’s ability to raise prices or degrade quality without losing users as evidence of monopolistic control; Google is expected to appeal.