Apple’s recent emergency motion to stay the Justice Department’s upcoming remedies trial against Google, which pertains to violations of antitrust laws, was swiftly denied. This motion, filed last Thursday, faced rejection from U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta on Sunday. The judge expressed that a delay would unnecessarily prolong a trial that has already endured years of legal proceedings.
According to the judge, allowing Google to continue benefiting from its illegal dominance in online search would be counterproductive.
“Preserving the status quo by granting a stay, as Apple urges, would only perpetuate this unlawful activity and is therefore contrary to the public interest,” Judge Mehta stated in his ruling.
The court had previously concluded that Google violated federal antitrust laws by entering into exclusive search distribution agreements with various companies, including Apple, to establish and maintain a monopoly in online search. This landmark ruling was issued last August.
Notably, Apple receives $20 billion annually to designate Google as the default search engine on its devices, as revealed in court documents last year.
In its emergency filing last week, Apple argued that it would “suffer clear and substantial irreparable harm” if excluded from the remedies trial. As the world’s most valuable company, boasting a market cap of $3.4 trillion, Apple sought a more significant role in the trial; however, it will now be relegated to observing from the sidelines.
In October, the U.S. Department of Justice indicated its consideration of breaking up Google in an effort to dismantle the company’s search engine monopoly.
“The starting point for addressing Google’s unlawful conduct is undoing its effects on search distribution,” stated the DOJ at that time. “For over a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little-to-no incentive to compete for users.”
Specific measures the DOJ may pursue include seeking a federal judge to compel Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to divest its Chrome browser.
According to statistics from SimilarWeb, Chrome is the most popular web browser in the U.S., utilized by 54% of Americans as their default browser. The next most-used browser is Apple’s Safari, which is the default for 33.4% of Americans.
With the denial of Apple’s stay motion, the remedies trial is set to proceed on April 22.
