Google's Payments to Apple Reached $20 Billion in 2022, Antitrust Court Documents Show

In 2022, Alphabet Inc. paid Apple Inc. $20 billion to maintain Google as the default search engine in Safari, as revealed by court documents in a U.S. antitrust lawsuit. This payment is crucial to the case, highlighting Google's alleged market monopoly in online search and advertising. The deal is significant for Apple, constituting 17.5% of its operating income in 2020. Despite competitive offers from Microsoft to switch to Bing, Apple has continued its lucrative arrangement with Google since 2002.