A recent report from the New York Times states that the Justice Department is targeting a secretive partnership between Apple and Google worth billions of dollars as part of its landmark antitrust case. The deal, which cemented Google’s control of internet search, is described as “one of the most lucrative business deals in history” by the Times.
Breitbart News recently reported that the Department of Justice has filed its hotly-anticipated antitrust lawsuit against Google. 11 states also joined the DOJ action against the internet giant. The lawsuit claims that the company engaged in anticompetitive practices in order to preserve monopolies in the search and advertising components that make up huge sections of the tech firm’s main business.
Now, the New York Times has outlined one deal between Apple and Google that is reportedly an area of focus in the case. The deal cemented Google as the primary search engine on Apple’s devices, funneling massive amounts of traffic to the search giant.
The New York Times writes:
When Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the chief executives of Apple and Google, were photographed eating dinner together in 2017 at an upscale Vietnamese restaurant called Tamarine, the picture set off a tabloid-worthy frenzy about the relationship between the two most powerful companies in Silicon Valley.
As the two men sipped red wine at a window table inside the restaurant in Palo Alto, their companies were in tense negotiations to renew one of the most lucrative business deals in history: an agreement to feature Google’s search engine as the preselected choice on Apple’s iPhone and other devices. The updated deal was worth billions of dollars to both companies and cemented their status at the top of the tech industry’s pecking order.
Now, the partnership is in jeopardy. Last Tuesday, the Justice Department filed a landmark lawsuit against Google — the U.S. government’s biggest antitrust case in two decades — and homed in on the alliance as a prime example of what prosecutors say are the company’s illegal tactics to protect its monopoly and choke off competition in web search.
Breitbart News previously reported that the Justice Department has been planning to bring an antitrust case against Google for some time. The recent filing comes after Attorney General William P. Barr reportedly overruled lawyers who said they needed more time to build a case against the tech giant.
It was reported that the company has been under investigation for almost a year with dozens of Justice Department lawyers working in two groups, each overseeing a separate line of inquiry. The two main areas being investigated were Google’s dominance in search and the company’s control over the online advertising ecosystem.
Google has control over approximately 90 percent of web searches worldwide, many rivals have complained that Google extends its dominance by making its search and browsing tools defaults on phones running its Android operating system.
Read the full article at the New York Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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