<story><title>Lawsuit filed alleging Google is paying Apple to stay out of the search business</title><url>https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-lawsuit-filed-in-california-alleging-google-is-paying-apple-to-stay-out-of-the-search-engine-business-301453098.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CobrastanJorji</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s the complaint: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.docketalarm.com&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;California_Northern_District_Court&amp;#x2F;3--21-cv-10001&amp;#x2F;California_Crane_School_Inc._v._Google_LLC__et_al&amp;#x2F;1&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.docketalarm.com&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;California_Northern_Distri...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The putative class they&amp;#x27;re suing to represent is apparently &amp;quot;All consumers and businesses who paid Google to place advertising on Google search in the United States since January 1, 2005.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I think the basic argument is &amp;quot;Apple might have created a competing search engine business, but Google paid them not to, which hurt people buying Google ads because competition would imply those Google ads may have been cheaper,  therefore Apple and Google need to pay the better part of a trillion dollars to these customers and then be broken up into smaller companies.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jrochkind1</author><text>US antitrust law right now basically operates on the principle that the only time anything is illegal is if it hurts consumer prices.&lt;p&gt;So that probably explains the convoluted cause of action, in that the only legal way to challenge it is probably with a weird convoluted cause of action like that, because it has to come back to consumer prices somehow to have a chance in court.&lt;p&gt;Google (or anyone) can have a monopoly and engage in anticompetitive practices, it&amp;#x27;s only illegal if you can show it hurt consumer prices.&lt;p&gt;The law didn&amp;#x27;t always work that way and doesn&amp;#x27;t need to, but that&amp;#x27;s more or less how it is now.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbwt.com&amp;#x2F;antitrust-update-blog&amp;#x2F;congress-hears-challenges-to-the-consumer-welfare-standard&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.pbwt.com&amp;#x2F;antitrust-update-blog&amp;#x2F;congress-hears-ch...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Lawsuit filed alleging Google is paying Apple to stay out of the search business</title><url>https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/class-action-lawsuit-filed-in-california-alleging-google-is-paying-apple-to-stay-out-of-the-search-engine-business-301453098.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CobrastanJorji</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s the complaint: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.docketalarm.com&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;California_Northern_District_Court&amp;#x2F;3--21-cv-10001&amp;#x2F;California_Crane_School_Inc._v._Google_LLC__et_al&amp;#x2F;1&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.docketalarm.com&amp;#x2F;cases&amp;#x2F;California_Northern_Distri...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The putative class they&amp;#x27;re suing to represent is apparently &amp;quot;All consumers and businesses who paid Google to place advertising on Google search in the United States since January 1, 2005.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I think the basic argument is &amp;quot;Apple might have created a competing search engine business, but Google paid them not to, which hurt people buying Google ads because competition would imply those Google ads may have been cheaper,  therefore Apple and Google need to pay the better part of a trillion dollars to these customers and then be broken up into smaller companies.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>hkt</author><text>AIUI in US competition law price is the only consideration, so this is smart. It will hinge on whether or not Apple had any concrete plans to build a search engine, and if their abandonment of it can be linked to the deal with Google.&lt;p&gt;Which is to say it is a tall order and might not succeed. But if it does.. goodness, what a hit they&amp;#x27;ll take.</text></comment>