*

Google's big loss in monopoly case could have silver

lining for

Apple ( AAPL )

*

US judge rules Google not required to accommodate rivals,

aiding

Apple's ( AAPL ) defense

*

Apple ( AAPL ) argues limiting third-party access to its tech is

not

anti-competitive behavior

By Jody Godoy

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) could be the winner

after Alphabet's Google lost its fight with the U.S.

antitrust enforcers earlier this week, with a ruling that

supports the iPhone maker's defense in its own antitrust court

battle with U.S. prosecutors, legal experts said.

A federal judge mostly sided with state and federal antitrust

enforcers in the blockbuster case on Monday that ruled Google's

search business was an illegal monopoly, but threw out a claim

by several U.S. states that one of Google's ad tools was

designed to give the company an advantage over Microsoft's ( MSFT )

Bing.

That piece could help Apple's ( AAPL ) defense in its own anti-monopoly

case, experts said.

The ruling underscored Supreme Court precedent that

companies almost never have a "duty to deal" with their rivals,

said Herbert Hovenkamp, who teaches antitrust at the University

of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

"Any case, including Apple ( AAPL ), in which a duty to deal is a

major portion, is going to get a close look," he said.

The states had claimed Google thwarted competition by

failing to offer key features for rivals' ads through Search Ads

360, a tool for managing marketing campaigns across multiple

search engines.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta agreed with Google that it

was not required to spur competition by accommodating its

rival.

"Their claim requires grappling with a host of questions

that the court is ill-equipped to handle," the judge said.

That part of the ruling is good for defendants, said William

Kovacic, a professor at George Washington University Law School

and former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"It also is a reminder that the case is hardly finished," he

said, adding that the case and appeals could take years.

To be sure, Apple ( AAPL ) could ultimately lose billions of dollars

because of the Google case if the judge bans the search

juggernaut from paying the iPhone maker and others to be the

default search engine on their devices.

Mehta noted that Google had paid $26.3 billion in 2021 alone

to ensure that its search engine is the default on smartphones

and browsers, and to keep its dominant market share.

But the Google ruling could give Apple ( AAPL ) a boost in its case

where the Justice Department says it hampered the development of

third-party apps and devices.

The company last week asked for the case to be dismissed,

arguing that putting reasonable limitations on third-party

developers' access to its technology did not amount to

anti-competitive behavior, and that forcing it to share

technology with competitors would chill innovation.

The judge in Apple's ( AAPL ) case need not follow Mehta's ruling,

though Apple ( AAPL ) may try to use it to persuade him.

The Justice Department will have to show Apple's ( AAPL )

interactions with developers were more like Google's payments to

device makers, Hovenkamp said.

"In order to win, the government is going to have to point

to some kind of agreement, because then the standard becomes

more aggressive," he said.