Apple Loses Bid to Defend Google Search Deals in US Monopoly Case

A D.C. federal judge rejected Apple Inc.’s bid to intervene in a US monopoly case against Alphabet Inc.’s Google in order to defend its billion-dollar deals with the online search giant.

Apple’s December motion to participate as a party in the case alongside Google was “untimely,” Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said.

The decision represents a blow for Apple, which claims it’s uniquely threatened by the Justice Department’s effort to overhaul Google’s business and restrict its payments to third-party distributors to ensure its search browser is the default option.

That effort stems ...