Additional information from the Department of Justice’s antitrust division reveals that Google is being sued for tying Search and proposing to spin off Chrome into a separate company.
Peter Fitzgerald, a partner manager at the platform and devices division, admitted in court that Google paid Samsung “an enormous sum of money” to use Gemini as an AI assistant on Samsung hardware. Although he did not disclose the exact figure, he used the term “enormous sum of money” in his testimony and stated that the deal with Samsung was for a 2-year term. Google is required to pay Samsung based on the number of hardware preloaded with Gemini and share a percentage of ad revenue with Samsung.
Fitzgerald also revealed that Samsung received similar offers from competitors like Microsoft, Meta, OpenAI to preload AI assistants on Samsung hardware, but ultimately, Samsung chose Google.
The issue of paying for preloading apps may not be uncommon in the industry, but it is a focus in court as the Department of Justice wants to show that Google has a pattern of paying for preloading its services, which damages competition in various industries.
In another case involving tying, Google previously disclosed that it paid Samsung a total of $8 billion between 2020-2023 to preload Search, Play Store, and Google Assistant.
Source: Bloomberg
TLDR:
Google is facing antitrust allegations for tying Search and proposing to separate Chrome into a new company. They paid Samsung a significant sum of money to use Gemini as an AI assistant on Samsung hardware, and similar offers were made to competitors. The issue of paying for preloading apps is a focus in court as it undermines competition. In a separate case, Google paid Samsung $8 billion to preload various services between 2020-2023.
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