Apple-Google Search Deal Still in DOJ Crosshairs

It’s only been a few weeks since Apple and Google announced a deal to use Gemini to power the next-generation of Siri, but now it looks like the long-standing $20 billion search deal between the two tech giants may once again be in jeopardy from antitrust regulators — a move that’s also casting uncertainty on the stability of the Gemini relationship

Last year, an antirust case brought by the US Department of Justice against Google ended with a favorable resolution for Apple’s bottom line. While the judge who oversaw the case, US District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta, ruled that Google couldn’t make exclusive deals for its search engine, he didn’t bar the company from paying Apple to be listed as the default search engine.

That’s technically all the multi-billion arrangement between the two companies was ever about, but the DOJ took issue with the fact that the arrangement was “de facto” exclusive, and the courts made it clear that the deal could continue only if any clauses that even hinted at exclusivity were stripped out.

Prior to Judge Mehta’s ruling, many feared that the courts would block the deal entirely — a move that would have hit Apple’s bottom line pretty hard. After all, Google’s payments make up 15–20 percent of the massive $30 billion in Services revenue that Apple reported last quarter, so it’s not exactly pocket change we’re talking about here.

Many analysts also believed the uncertainty of this case was one of the things that may have been holding back the Gemini deal. Apple reportedly held an “AI bake-off” last year, with Google’s AI models coming out on top for both technical and financial reasons, but some insiders suggested executives were hesitant to ink another semi-exclusive deal with Google while the search deal remained up in the air.

It’s Not Over Yet

Needless to say, analysts and investors breathed a sigh of relief after Judge Mehta’s September ruling, but it now turns out that may have been short-lived.

On Tuesday, the Department of Justice and a massive coalition of states — including a group of 13 specifically named in the DOJ’s filing — filed a notice of cross-appeal asking the court to reconsider the remedies that were handed down in September.

This first step is merely a notice of an intent to file an appeal, and as such doesn’t spell out exactly what the DOJ and states are asking the court to do beyond revisiting its final judgement. The case is far more complex than just the Apple-Google deal; in fact, Apple is really more of a bystander that would face collateral damage if the full weight of the DOJ’s sanctions were imposed upon the search giant.

As the name suggests, the DOJ’s cross-appeal is actually in response to a notice of appeal that Google filed in mid-January, so it might be little more than ensuring the government is ready to head the tech giant off at the pass. Google naturally isn’t arguing the points on which it basically won, but the more extreme remedies covered a lot of other ground.

The DOJ was recommending that Google be broken up by selling off its Chrome browser, which Judge Mehta declined to order. However, the judge did rule that Google would be required to share its search data with its rivals, and since that’s the company’s bread and butter, it’s not hard to imagine that’s the key point on which it wants to appeal. Meanwhile, the DOJ is likely to push for the divestiture of Chrome even more than the Apple search deal.

While Gemini wasn’t a major factor when the original case was launched in 2024, the landscape has changed a lot since then. The DOJ is now discussing how Gemini fits into the mix, suggesting Google’s search dominance gives its AI an unfair advantage due to the extensive data available to it. Judge Mehta’s ruling included a ban on exclusive contracts for Google’s AI products like Gemini, but some analysts are concerned that the DOJ is seeking to block any “default” placement for AI assistants. The Siri-Gemini deal might be able to skirt around that, since Google is only providing the AI plumbing for a system that will be designed and operated by Apple, but it still brings some uncertainty into the mix.

Either way, since the gears of justice turn rather slowly, it’s unlikely we’ll see a resolution to this anytime soon. So far, both parties have only filed notices that indicate they’ll be filing more detailed appeals. Now their respective battalions of lawyers have to put those appeals together and let them wind their way through the courts, and there’s a good chance both parties will fight this one all the way up to the Supreme Court. Until that dust settles, it will be business as usual, both for Google search on your Apple devices and for the future of Google’s involvement in Siri.