A class action lawsuit has been filed alleging that Google and Apple have a deal that keeps the iPhone maker out of search. It claims that the payments are made from Google to Apple to maintain the no-compete agreement. CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are also named in the filing made by the Alioto Law Firm on behalf of The California Crane School.
Class Action Lawsuits Alleges No Compete Deal Between Apple And Google
The complaint alleges that Google shares its search profits with Apple, which, in return, gives the service preferences on its devices. Annual multi-billion dollar payments are said to have been made. The complaint alleges that small companies were suppressed and the price of advertising hiked up. It demands that both companies be broken up into separate, independent companies, citing the breakup up of Standard Oil as precedent.
Joseph M. Alioto of Alioto Law Firm commented:
These powerful companies abused their size by unlawfully foreclosing and monopolizing major markets which in an otherwise free enterprise system would have created jobs, lowered prices, increased production, added new competitors, encouraged innovations, and increased the quality of services in the digital age.
The Mac Observer has reached out to both Apple and Google, but had not heard back at the time of this writing.