Three Apple executives to be witnesses at Google's antitrust trial

Apple's executive staff may be missing three members during its iPhone 15 launch day, as they are required to act as witnesses during a Google antitrust bench trial.

SVP of Services Eddy Cue, SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea, and VP of Corporate Development Adrian Perica have been subpoenaed to provide testimony during a Google antitrust bench trial that begins September 12. Apple filed a request to have the subpoenas quashed but failed.

According to a report from Reuters, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied Apple's request despite the company's previous disclosure of over 125,000 documents and hours of testimony. Apple had hoped to avoid "duplicative" and "unduly burdensome" testimony during the Google antitrust case, which could also inadvertently reveal competitively sensitive information.

The antitrust trial is against Google, with the government accusing the search company of abusing its power. A key component of the trial is said to be Google's dealings with other companies to be offered as a default search provider.

Previous reports suggest Google pays Apple as much as $15 billion to remain the default option on iPhone and other Apple products. This is a power play that allegedly prevents competitors from competing in the space.

Google has denied wrongdoing. Apple has argued that its over 1 million pages of information provided during discovery and 21.5 hours of deposition testimony is more than the parties could need for trial.

Despite these protests, Judge Mehta denied the request. The bench trial begins on September 12, the same day as the iPhone 15 "Wonderlust" event, but it isn't clear whether those executives will attend that first day or not.

4 Comments

ihatescreennames 1971 comments · 19 Years

About 1 year ago

Despite any money that Google may pay Apple to be the default search engine, I have manually changed mine and many others to DDG for years and years.

davidw 2112 comments · 17 Years

About 1 year ago

From what I read and still only rumored as it's still not officially verified by either Google or Apple, Google do not "pay" Apple any negotiated lump sum to be the default search engine on Safari. It's what Apple has to do for Google in exchange for getting a commission on the ad revenue Google makes from iOS users surfing the web with Chrome and Safari (and maybe other ways like with Google Maps on iOS). This commission is what amounts to the rumored $15B Apple gets annually, for having Google as their default search engine on Safari.

This is why Google is not losing any money by "paying" Apple $15B to be their default search engine. It's just a percentage of the money they are making on iOS. iOS accounts for 50% of their ad revenue every year. This makes more sense than Apple charging Google for being the default search engine and Google willing to pay that. Or Google "paying" Apple to prevent Apple from choosing another search engine to be their default. This also explains why the rumored amount that Apple gets every year has increased significantly over the years. Google been making a ton more money on iOS over the years.

https://searchengineland.com/report-google-sharing-chrome-ios-search-revenue-with-apple-393296

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-apple-business-search-34933.html

mike1 3431 comments · 10 Years

About 1 year ago

Apple's executive staff may be missing three members during its iPhone 15 launch day, as they are required to act as witnesses during a Google antitrust bench trial.

Even if these people would be presenting, the events are prerecorded. They're not missing anything.

danox 3393 comments · 11 Years

About 1 year ago

ihatescreennames said:

Despite any money that Google may pay Apple to be the default search engine, I have manually changed mine and many others to DDG for years and years.

Not good enough they shouldn’t be there as a default in the first place. No one else has a chance if they’re camping out, they have an ecosystem called Android let them live within that system, and nowhere else, after all, what does Apple make that works within their Android ecosystem virtually nothing, and the same pretty much applies to the Microsoft ecosystem, let both of them bear the true cost of development (being a vertical computer company like Apple), after all for true capitalistic competition let the gatekeepers (as defined by the EU ) fend for themselves.

In short Apple can live without them over time, but if Google and Microsoft weren’t camped out in the Apple ecosystem, many other smaller developers could gain a foothold in certain programming areas that are currently not available to them because of some of the price dumping programs that Google and Microsoft impose on the iOS and Mac OS ecosystems.

Note, Apple has kneecapped several developers, themselves by making Pages, Keynote and Numbers free. I don’t think the Justice department or the EU will dig in and take a close look at free software, upfront, and a subscription price later on, which favors large companies, in time most small companies will go by the wayside, particularly if they are interested in developing a serious program beyond a casual game or a Web app.