As it prepares for a trial to decide whether Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google violates antitrust law in how it manages its search business, the Justice Department wants to depose some of Apple’s (AAPL.O) top executives, a lawyer representing Apple said on Friday.
The Justice Department accused Google of paying billions of dollars a year in exclusionary agreements to Apple, Samsung, and others to make Google’s search engine the default on their devices, according to the complaint.
Apple’s Steven Sunshine said at a pre-trial hearing that the government was seeking depositions from “Apple’s most senior executives.”
Sunshine also stated that he wasn’t sure what the Justice Department was looking for from Apple.
In October 2020, the US Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Google, charging the $1 trillion business of improperly leveraging its market power to stifle competitors. The date for the trial has been scheduled for Sept. 12, 2023.
Around two years ago, the US Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and groups of state attorneys general initiated a slew of probes into Big Tech platforms, some of which have ended in litigation.
