09/26/2023 – 19:44
Summoned to testify in the trial against Google, a senior Apple executive assured, this Tuesday (26), that the popular search engine was, according to him, the best product for users of their smartphones.
In the historic trial, opened on September 12, the Internet giant is accused by the American government of abusing its dominant position.
According to the Department of Justice, Google built its company thanks to illegal exclusive contracts with companies such as Samsung, Apple and Mozilla, so that its search engine was installed as standard on their devices and services, thus preventing the emergence of any alternative to he.
“I don’t believe there is anything as good as Google when it comes to online search,” Eddy Cue, one of Apple’s vice presidents, told the court.
“At that time there was no viable alternative to Google. And we never really considered choosing another one,” she added.
Cue referenced a series of deals beginning in 2002, when Google paid Apple billions of dollars to get a prominent place in its devices.
The agreement was updated in 2016, so that the iPhone maker would receive a greater share of Google’s advertising revenue derived from its search engine through Safari, Apple’s internet browser.
Cue’s testimony was quickly opened to the public, before continuing behind closed doors due to companies’ fears of leaking sensitive data.
Google has ten weeks of hearings to try to convince federal judge Amit Mehta that the government’s accusations are baseless.
It is the second time that American prosecutors have faced a large technology corporation since, more than 20 years ago, Microsoft became a target due to the predominance of its operating system, Windows.
The trial aims to determine whether the success of Google’s search engine is due to its performance or whether there are illegal practices behind it.
Court hearings have already revealed that Google pays 10 billion dollars (around R$50 billion) annually to Apple and other companies to guarantee its status as the default search engine on smartphones and browsers.
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