The US considers the division of Google to prevent the company from monopoly

The United States government has said it is even considering demanding a breakup of Google among measures to prevent the multinational company from exploiting its monopoly position after a federal court ruled last August that the company was not complying with US antitrust laws. after discovering that it controlled approximately 90% of the Internet search market.

In a 32-page document filed with the court hearing the case, the Justice Department as a plaintiff proposes that various solutions be considered to address issues such as the distribution of Google search results and revenue distribution, the generation and display of search results, and the scale of advertising. and monetization, as well as the accumulation and use of data.

In this sense, he points out that in each area the measures necessary to prevent and stop the continuation of a company’s monopoly may require contractual requirements and prohibitions; requirements for non-discrimination of products; data and interoperability requirements; and “structural requirements.”

Among the proposed measures, the plaintiffs are considering “behavioral and structural” measures that would prevent Google from using products like Chrome, Play and Android to support Google Search and related products and features, including hotspots and new search features such as. as AI in relation to competitors or new entrants.”

They also propose measures that would limit or end Google’s use of contracts, monopoly profits and other tools to control or influence existing and new search-related products and distribution channels, including browsers, search applications and artificial intelligence.

Accordingly, plaintiffs are seeking remedies that, among other things, limit or prohibit default agreements, pre-installation agreements, and other revenue sharing agreements associated with search and search-related products.

“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving its competitors with little incentive to compete for users,” notes the DOJ, which requires that fully reversing these losses not only require ending Google’s control of distribution today, “but also ensuring that that Google won’t be able to control distribution tomorrow.”

For its part, Google responded by calling the Justice Department’s proposed changes “drastic” and warning that they risk harming consumers, businesses and developers.

In that sense, Leigh-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, stressed that this is the start of a long process and assured that the company will respond in detail to the Justice Department’s final proposals when it submits its case goes to trial next year.

“We are concerned, however, that the Department of Justice is already indicating requests that go well beyond the specific legal issues in this case,” he added.

Specifically, the Mountain View-based company warns that “separating Chrome and Android will destroy them” after pouring billions of dollars into both, adding that few companies will have the ability or incentive to keep these services open or invest in them. on the same level as Google.

“Make no mistake: separating them will change their business models, increase the cost of devices and weaken Android and Google Play in their fierce competition with the iPhone and Apple App Store,” Mulholland said.