- Apple's SVP must testify in Google federal antitrust case
- Federal judge blocked Apple's latest effort to quash testimony subpoenas
- Apple has already provided over 125,000 documents for the case
- Apple and Google relationship to be examined as part of the case
Three Apple executives – including two senior vice presidents – must testify as witnesses in a federal antitrust case brought forward against Google after the executives’ efforts to be dismissed as witnesses were blocked, according to reporting by Reuters.
The three named Apple executives required to testify are Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy John Giannandrea, and Vice President of Corporate Development Adrian Perica. Reuters reports that the executive trio previously argued that forcing them to testify was “duplicative” and “unduly burdensome,” especially since they had previously cooperated with Apple reportedly disclosing more than 125,000 documents at a prior stage of the case. Apple’s motion to quash the trial subpoenas also mentions that the above-named executives have already “provided over 21.5 hours of deposition testimony over four days.”
U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Amit Mehta has blocked on Monday Apple’s formal attempt to quash the executives’ testimony subpoenas. The case – which the US Justice Department is bringing forward against Google on the basis of antitrust and monopolistic practices, does not name Apple as a defendant. Nevertheless, the Justice Department has stated that Apple’s relationship with Google in which the latter pays the former a significant fee to be the default search engine on Safari “will be a central issue at trial.”
Apple’s legal team has cautioned that the trial testimony could potentially lead to the unintentional disclosure of their most highly competitive information. In a formal document, Apple has expressed its intention to protect details related to business negotiations, confidential contract terms, and any future product developments.
The exact figure that Google pays Apple to be the default search engine on Safari has never been publicly disclosed, but recent estimates peg the figure at $20 billion dollar as recently as 2022, with the sum quickly rising on an annual basis throughout the last decade.
