British authorities are looking into the financial arrangement between Apple and Google regarding the sharing of revenue made through Chrome on iOS.
Rumor has it that Google would pay Apple a significant share of the profits advertisements made through its search engine on iOS. The information is, in itself, nothing very surprising, it is even an established fact: the Mountain View giant actually pays the manufacturers of smartphones and other tablets so that they favor its browser, Chrome. However, this could become very problematic if the intractable CMA, the UK Antitrust Authority, decides that the process is illegal.
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It is rumored that the public establishment is interested in the use of Chrome on Apple smartphones. How do Google and Apple split the profits made through Chrome for iOS? Has the Cupertino company agreed not to create its own search engine to favor Google?
Google shares its profits so that Apple does not develop its own search engine
We have the right to wonder why Apple, which likes to control its products from design to manufacturing, both in terms of software and hardware, has still not created its own search engine. The sums at stake are colossal, since the CMA report speaks of 1 to 1.69 billion € just for the United Kingdom in 2021 and analysts estimate that they would amount to 15 billion $ at the global level. The CMA therefore believes that the two giants are abusing their dominant position.
According to the terms of their agreement, Google pays Apple a percentage of the revenue generated by searches made in Safari, if it is the default search engine, but also, and this is more disturbing, through Chrome for iOS. If financially the two companies have every interest in maintaining this duopoly, for lawyers, it constitutes a brake on innovation and free competition. Legally, they will be prosecuted in the United States and in England.
Source : Apple Insider
