On Tuesday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai affirmed that the information presented in open court on Monday by an expert witness called upon by Google in antitrust proceedings in Washington, D.C. was accurate - that the search giant is paying Apple 36% of Safari search revenue pursuant to the terms of a default search agreement that is critical to the Justice Department's antitrust claims. Pichai's confirmation was made in regard to a separate lawsuit filed against Google by Epic Games.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed on Tuesday that Google compensates Apple with 36% of Safari search revenue under the terms of a default search agreement, which is a core element of the Justice Department's antitrust claims. Pichai's statement was made in response to a question posed by an attorney for Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, during a separate lawsuit against Google. On Monday, a University of Chicago economics professor who had been testifying on Google's behalf inadvertently revealed the 36% figure in open court.The Epic attorney posed the question if the detail supplied by Google's witness was correct to which Pichai replied "That's correct." The same attorney then asked about the revenue cut for Samsung, Android's largest hardware partner, to which Pichai replied he did not know for certain but it was possible. Pichai said, "It's like apples and oranges," when discussing the Samsung deal, adding that payments are sometimes made to carriers. He went on to comment that Google competes "fiercely with Apple."In 2022, Google spent nearly $49 billion on what is known as Traffic Acquisition Costs, which are payments it gives to other companies such as Apple and Samsung to place its search engine in the hands of users. No information had been released about Google's revenue-sharing agreement with Apple until Kevin Murphy, the professor who had been testifying on Google's behalf, revealed the figure while responding to questions from Alphabet's lead attorney, John Schmidtlein.Alphabet is currently involved in multiple legal disputes, including two Justice Department suits concerning alleged anticompetitive behavior in Virginia and Washington, D.C. It is also being sued by Epic Games for maintaining an illegal monopoly with the company's Google Play store. Epic also filed a similar suit against Apple which it lost in a federal appeals court in April.Apple, Google, and Samsung have yet to respond to CNBC's request for comment on Pichai's testimony.--CNBC's Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
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