The US court ruling that Google used illegal practices to maintain its dominant market position could cost Apple a substantial income deal. 

Google pays Apple $20bn a year, roughly 36% of its earnings from search advertising made through Safari, to be the default search engine on apple devices – according to Morgan Stanley analysts. 

Analysts predict that if the deal is shelved by Google, it could cost Apple 4-6% of its profits. This scenario could, indeed, be a possible resolution to the antitrust law violations declared earlier this week. 

If the agreement between Google and Apple was terminated, Apple customers would have more autonomy when choosing and changing their search engine. 

In its current form the agreement runs until at least September 2026 with Apple having the right to extend the contract for a further two years, according to documents filed by the Department of Justice in the antitrust case. 

Analysts agree that the ruling will speed up Apple’s move towards AI-powered search services as the tech giant recently announced plans to deploy OpenAI‘s ChatGPT chatbot on its devices.  

In a bid to avoid monopoly deals that could bring Apple under scrutiny of their own, the company has said it is also in talks with Google to implement Google’s Gemini chatbot as well as other AI products. 

Alphabet, the parent company of Google has seen little affect to the share price in the aftermath of the court ruling with Apple’s shares currently trading flat.