DOJ wants to push Google to sell Chrome to break its search monopoly
Top antitrust officials at the Justice Department have decided to ask a judge to order Alphabet Inc.’s Google. to sell its Chrome browser, which would be a historic move against one of the world’s largest tech companies.
The department will ask the judge, who ruled in August that Google was illegally monopolizing the search market, to require action on artificial intelligence (AI) and the Android smartphone operating system, people familiar with the plans said.
Antitrust officials, along with states that have joined the case, also plan to recommend Wednesday that federal judge Amit Mehta impose data licensing requirements, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter .
If Mehta accepts the proposals, they have the potential to reshape the online search market and the fast-growing AI industry. The case was filed under the first Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden. It marks the most aggressive attempt to rein in a technology company since Washington tried unsuccessfully to take down Microsoft Corp. two decades ago. to split up.
Owning the world’s most popular web browser is critical to Google’s advertising business. The company can see the activity of logged in users and use that data to more effectively target promotions, which generate the majority of revenue. Google also uses Chrome to direct users to its flagship AI product, Gemini, which has the potential to evolve from a response bot to an assistant that follows users around the web.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, said the Justice Department “continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.” She added: “If the government puts its thumb on the scale in these ways, it would harm consumers, developers and America’s technology leadership at exactly the time it is needed most.”
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Google shares fell as much as 1.8 percent to $172.16 (approximately Rs. 14,530) in late trade. They were up 25 percent this year through the close.
Chrome access
Antitrust enforcers want the judge to order Google to sell Chrome — the world’s most used browser — because it is a key entry point where many people use the search engine, the people said.
The government has the option to decide at a later date whether a Chrome sale is necessary if some of the other aspects of the solution create a more competitive market, the people added. According to StatCounter, a web traffic analysis service, the Chrome browser controls about 61 percent of the market in the US.
Government lawyers have met with dozens of companies over the past three months as they prepared the recommendation. States are still considering adding some proposals and some details could change, the people said.
Antitrust officials backed away from a tougher option that would have forced Google to sell Android, the people said.
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Google objection
Mehta’s ruling in August that Google violated antitrust laws in both the online search and search text advertising markets followed a 10-week trial last year. The company has announced that it will appeal.
The judge held a two-week hearing in April on the changes Google must make to fix the illegal behavior and plans to issue a final ruling by August 2025.
The agency and states have decided to recommend that Google be required to license the results and data of its popular search engine and give websites more options to prevent their content from being used by Google’s artificial intelligence products, the people said .
Antitrust enforcers plan to propose that Google separate its Android smartphone operating system from its other products, including Search and the Google Play mobile app store, which are now sold as a bundle, the people said. They are also willing to demand that Google share more information with advertisers and give them more control over where their ads appear.
Lawyers for the Justice Department and attorneys general included all of these options in an initial filing in October, as well as a ban on the type of exclusive contracts that were at the center of the case against Google.
If a forced spin-off were to occur, this would also depend on finding an interested buyer. Those who can afford it and might want ownership, such as Amazon.com Inc., also face antitrust scrutiny that could prevent such a megadeal.
“My view is that this is extremely unlikely,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said in an email. But he added that he would see a buyer like OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. “That would give it both a distribution and advertising business to complement its consumer chatbot subscriptions.”
AI overviews
Google now displays artificial intelligence-based answers at the top of search pages, billed as “AI Summaries.” While websites can opt out of Google using their information to create AI models, they cannot afford to opt out of the listings as it risks being ranked lower in search results. making it harder to reach their customers.
Website publishers have complained that the feature dampens traffic and advertising costs because users rarely click through to see the data used to drive those results.
Previously: Google’s AI search gives sites a tough choice: share data or die
As for data licensing, antitrust enforcers plan to propose two options: that Google sell the underlying “click and search data” and also syndicate search results separately, the people said.
The company currently sells syndicated search results, but with restrictions, such as preventing their use on mobile. By forcing Google to syndicate its search results, rival search engines and AI startups could quickly improve their quality, while the data feed would allow others to build their own search index.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
