The US asks Google to sell Chrome to deprive it of its monopoly – DW – 11/21/2024

The US government on Wednesday evening (11/20/2024) asked a judge to order Google to be broken up by selling its widely used Chrome browser as part of a sweeping antitrust campaign against the internet giant.

In the lawsuit, the U.S. Justice Department called for a restructuring of Google’s business, including blocking deals to make Google the default search engine on smartphones and barring it from using its Android mobile operating system.

The prospect of demanding a Google spin-off marks a profound shift on the part of US antitrust regulators, who have largely left the tech giants alone after they failed to break up Microsoft 20 years ago.

The lawsuit also calls for the company to stop paying billions of dollars a year to partners like Apple to make Google’s search engine standard in web browsers.

“Google shall immediately and in full sell Chrome to a buyer approved by plaintiffs in their sole discretion, subject to the conditions approved by the court and plaintiffs,” the DOJ said in its proposed final order.

The Department of Justice also demanded that Google not return to the browser market for 5 years.

Google is already under fire for violating antitrust laws

The tech giant is already in the crosshairs of US authorities. The company suffered a legal setback last August when a federal judge found it had violated antitrust laws in the online search engine market.

While the final sanction is still unknown, it is expected that he will appeal and that the process will be extended and could eventually reach the Supreme Court.

The judge could hand down a sentence in August 2025, after receiving a formal request from authorities in November and hearing both sides at a special hearing in April.

The Justice Department wants Google to get rid of Chrome, the world’s most used web browser, because it is one of the search engine’s main entry points, undercutting other competitors.

According to the website StatCounter, in September Google captured 90% of the global online search market and 94% on smartphones.

jc (afp, efe, ap, Reuters)