Google and Apple Signed a Deal

Reports on the deal between and Google and Apple. The pending federal case against Google echoes tropes found in prior antitrust cases. It partially ventures into familiar legal and economic territory. Prosecutors ask for the end of the exclusive deals Google has signedwithmany other market participants. Look closely. The federal case is two cases wrapped into one. One set of exclusive deals, between Google and Apple, fundamentally differ from the others. The deal between two of the richest companies in the world raises its own set of questions. That is so even if all the other exclusive deals disappear. Google pays Apple something like $12 billion a year. The payments are for making the Google search engine the default search engine on the iPhone, as well as making it the default search engine on other Apple products and services—i.e., Siri, Safari, and so on. I think the federal case about this particular deal contains considerable merit.