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Google paid Apple $20B in 2022 alone for default status

The massive sum appeared in unsealed testimony by a top Apple executive in the trial’s early days last fall and marked the first public confirmation of the figure.

Google paid a whopping $20 billion to Apple in 2022 alone to be the default search engine on its Safari web browser, according to unredacted documents that surfaced on the eve of closing arguments Thursday that will wrap up the Justice Department’s landmark antitrust trial. The massive sum appeared in unsealed testimony by top Apple executive Eddy Cue in the trial’s early days last fall and marked the first public confirmation of the figure. Antitrust watchdogs were sharply critical of Mehta for allowing portions of the trial, including testimony of key witnesses like Cue, to initially be shielded from the public.

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