The US government late Wednesday asked a judge to order Google to liquidate its widely used Chrome browser by selling it in a major antitrust action against the internet giant.
In a court filing, the US Justice Department urged changes to Google’s business, including banning Google’s deals to be the default search engine on smartphones and barring it from exploiting its Android mobile operating system.
Antitrust officials said in the filing that Google could also be forced to sell Android if the proposed measures do not prevent the tech company from using control of the mobile operating system to its advantage.
The call to break up Google marks a deep shift by US government regulators, who have largely left the tech giant alone since failing to break up Microsoft two decades ago.
Google is expected to provide its recommendations in a filing next month and both sides will present their case at a hearing before US District Court Judge Amit Mehta in April.
Regardless of Judge Mehta’s final decision, Google is expected to appeal the decision, extending the process by years and potentially leaving the final decision up to the US Supreme Court.
The arrival of newly elected President Donald Trump in the White House in January may also worsen the matter.
His administration will likely replace the current team in charge of the DOJ’s antitrust division.
Newcomers can choose to pursue the case, ask for a settlement with Google, or drop the case altogether.
Trump has pushed hard for how to handle the dominance of Google and big tech companies.
He has accused the search engine of bias towards conservative content, but also indicated that a forced dissolution of the company would be much larger than the US government is demanding.
a lot of?
Determining how to address Google’s mistakes is the next phase of the landmark antitrust trial, in which the company was ruled a monopoly by Judge Mehta in August.
Google has rejected the idea of a breakup as “radical”.
Adam Kovacevich, chief executive of industry trade group Chamber of Progress, said the government’s demands were “fantastic” and disregarded legal standards, calling instead for narrowly tailored measures.
The trial, which concluded last year, examined Google’s confidentiality agreements with smartphone makers including Apple.
These deals include substantial payments to secure Google’s search engine as the default option on browsers, iPhones and other devices.
The judge determined that this arrangement gave Google unparalleled access to user data, enabling it to grow its search engine into a globally dominant platform.
From this position, Google expanded its technological and data-gathering empire to include the Chrome browser, Maps, and the Android smartphone operating system.
According to the ruling, Google controlled 90 percent of the US online search market in 2020, with an even higher share on mobile devices, at 95 percent.
The US government currently has five cases pending against big tech over antitrust concerns after the Biden administration took a tough stance on reining in the companies’ dominance.
If action is taken by the Trump administration, litigation over the two cases against Amazon, Meta, and Apple, as well as Google, could take years.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
