Google vs US government: Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells court why the company pays billions to Apple

Google CEO Sundar Pichai today (October 30) took stand in the biggest US antitrust case in a quarter century. Testifying in the court, Pichai defended Google’s practice of paying Apple and other tech companies to make Google the default search engine on their devices. Google CEO said that the intent was to make the user experience “seamless and easy.’’

Pichai is the highest-ranking Google parent Alphabet executive to appear in court during the company’s antitrust trial. Pichai reportedly testified that Google’s payments to phone manufacturers and wireless phone companies were partly meant to nudge them into making costly security upgrades and other improvements to their devices, not just to ensure Google was the first search engine users see when they open their smartphones or computers.

According to a report in Axios, Pichai said that such agreements make it easier for people to access Google and are well worth the cost: “We pay an amount of money based on the value we see,” he said.