Wall Street Journal

Apple's exclusive market for selling iPhone apps came under fire at the Supreme Court, as justices considered whether consumers should be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit alleging the company has an illegal monopoly that produces higher prices. The plaintiffs are a group of consumers pursuing a class-action lawsuit seeking damages on behalf of people who have purchased iPhone apps. They argue that prices are higher than they would be in a competitive market because Apple requires that all software for its phones be sold and purchased through its App Store.

The US government has initiated an extraordinary outreach campaign to foreign allies, trying to persuade wireless and internet providers in these countries to avoid telecommunications equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co., apparently. American officials have briefed their government counterparts and telecom executives in friendly countries where Huawei equipment is already in wide use, including Germany, Italy and Japan, about what they see as cybersecurity risks.

Both companies have long preferred to be vague on the details of their arrangement in which Google pays Apple to be the default search engine on its Safari internet browser. Some $4 billion a year is the most conservative view among analysts who have taken a stab at estimating these payments.