After Apple, Google may have a 'Huge Samsung Problem'

Google may be facing another 'Apple-like' problem. Google parent company Alphabet made monthly payments to Samsung Electronics for the pre-installation of its generative AI app, Gemini, on Samsung's smartphones and other devices, a testimony delivered in a Washington federal court as part of the Justice Department's ongoing antitrust case against Google has unveiled.
Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s vice president of platforms and device partnerships, disclosed during his testimony to Judge Amit Mehta that the company initiated these payments to Samsung for Gemini in January of this year, as per news agency Reuters.

The contract, which is slated to run for a minimum of two years, involves fixed monthly payments to Samsung for each device that comes equipped with the pre-installed Gemini application. Additionally, Fitzgerald informed the court that Samsung receives a percentage of the advertising revenue generated by Google within the Gemini app.
While the precise monetary figure of Google’s monthly payments to Samsung for Gemini was not disclosed in court, DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist emphasised during opening statements that the search giant remits an “enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment” to the South Korean electronics manufacturer.

This revelation comes despite previous legal findings that Google's practice of paying for such installations constitutes a violation of antitrust law.
Judge Amit Mehta, who is presiding over the antitrust case, had previously determined last year that Google's practice of compensating Samsung to be the default search engine on its devices was in violation of antitrust regulations.
It was also reported that Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 for Google to be the default search engine in the Safari browser.
Further context was provided by recalling a separate legal battle concerning Google's alleged monopolisation of the Android ecosystem. Testimony in that case revealed that between 2020 and 2023, Google paid a staggering $8 billion to secure default status for Google Search, the Play Store, and Google Assistant on Samsung's mobile devices.