The Department of Justice (DOJ) is escalating its antitrust case against Google. The court is proposing significant structural changes to the tech giant’s operations, including forcing Google to divest its Chrome browser.
This action from the DOJ stems from an August ruling by a federal judge that found Google had illegally monopolized the online search market. The DOJ argues that Chrome’s dominance as the world’s most widely used browser lets Google leverage its position to cross-promote its other products and stifle competition. The DOJ believes that selling Chrome would create a more level playing field for rival browsers and search engines. However, the DOJ can reassess the necessity of a Chrome sale if other remedies sufficiently increase market competitiveness.
Beyond the potential sale of Chrome, the DOJ is also pushing for Google to unbundle its Android operating system from other Google products, including Google Search and the Google Play Store. Currently, these are sold as a package deal, which is a practice the DOJ says gives Google an unfair advantage. This unbundling would not involve a forced sale of Android, representing a scaling back from a previously considered more drastic measure.
Further proposed remedies focus on data licensing and artificial intelligence (AI). The DOJ plans to recommend that Google license its search data and results, giving competitors the information needed to improve their own offerings. This could involve selling the underlying “click and query” data, separately syndicating search results, or removing current restrictions that prevent its use on mobile devices.
Additionally, the DOJ wants to give websites greater control over their content in Google’s AI products, which may let them opt out of AI training. This addresses concerns that Google’s AI Overviews feature, which displays AI-generated answers at the top of search results, disadvantages websites that do not share their data.
Google, which intends to appeal the August ruling, has strongly criticized the DOJ’s proposals in a statement to Bloomberg. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the DOJ “continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case. The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.”
Source: Bloomberg
