Canadian Court Certifies Class Action Against Apple Over Google Deal
A British Columbia judge has certified a class action alleging Apple's Safari search deal with Google stifled competition and inflated advertisers' prices.
SUMO· the number puzzle
Dialo· learn languages by speaking
ediviewer· read EDI files like documents
giftdetect· the right gift in minutesA British Columbia Supreme Court judge has certified a class action against Apple, alleging that its search agreement with Google stifled competition and pushed up advertising prices. The ruling does not find that Apple broke any law. It only allows the claims to proceed as a class action.
The case was filed in 2021 by Spark Event Rentals Ltd., a British Columbia event rental company. It claimed Apple and Google conspired to limit competition in search, letting Google charge advertisers artificially high prices. Google was later dropped as a defendant after a dispute over an arbitration clause in its advertising contracts, leaving Apple as the only defendant.
What the court found
Justice Thomas found sufficient grounds to examine whether Google's payments discouraged Apple from building its own search engine. The central argument is that Apple had the resources and distribution to enter search but chose not to because Google paid it billions of dollars in revenue-share payments to be Safari's default. In the judge's view, this pleads a common purpose to carry out an act prohibited by section 45 of the Competition Act.
The judge cited testimony from Apple's Eddy Cue and John Giannandrea in the US antitrust trial against Google, saying it provides "some basis in fact" for inferring that Apple did not compete with Google because of the agreement. He accepted Apple's objection that the plaintiff had "cherry-picked" evidence, but said that was appropriate at this stage.
Apple argues the deal is a legitimate distribution arrangement, and has described itself as an "innocent bystander" that should not be the defendant.
Who is covered
The class includes Canadian residents who bought Google search ads since 2005, when the Safari default arrangement began in exchange for a share of ad revenue. It seeks compensation for alleged overpayment, and the court also allowed the question of punitive damages to proceed.
The case adds to scrutiny of the deal in the US, UK and Australia. A US federal judge ruled in August 2024 that Google illegally maintained its search monopoly through anticompetitive agreements, including its Apple deal. No trial date has been set.
Apps worth a look
SUMO: the number puzzleTap the right tiles, add them up, hit the target. Easy to learn, hard to master. Free, for all ages.
Dialo: learn languages by speakingTalk to an AI conversation partner; every sentence comes back corrected and explained in your language. 9 languages, A1 to C2.
ediviewer: read EDI files like documentsOpen EDIFACT and X12 messages, see every segment explained, convert to JSON/XML, export PDF and Excel. Runs locally, no upload.
giftdetect: the right gift in minutesPick who it is for, the occasion and their personality. The search engine reads product descriptions from local shops and ranks what fits. Free, no sign-up.
