Editor-DN
Washington:
The US government asked a judge late on Wednesday to order it to sell off Google’s widely used Chrome browser in a major antitrust crackdown on the internet giant.
In a court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice urged Google to change its business, including barring deals for Google to be the default search engine on smartphones and preventing it from exploiting its Android mobile operating system.
Antitrust officials said in the filing that if the proposed remedy doesn’t stop the tech company from using control of the mobile operating system to its advantage, Google should also be made to sell Android.
The call for Google’s breakup marks a profound shift by US government regulators, who have largely left the tech giants alone since failing to crack down on Microsoft two decades ago.
Google is expected to make 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 ruling, which would drag out the process for years and potentially leave the final decision up to the US Supreme Court.
This issue may be exacerbated by the arrival of President-elect Donald Trump in the White House in January.
His administration will likely replace the current team in charge of the DOJ’s antitrust division.
Newcomers can choose to continue the case, seek a settlement with Google, or drop the case entirely.
Trump has blown hot and cold on how to handle the dominance of Google and the big tech companies.
He has accused the search engine of bias against conservative content, but has also hinted that a forced breakup of the company would be too much of a demand from the US government.
Too much?
Determining how to fix Google’s mistakes is the next step in the landmark antitrust case that led to Judge Mehta’s ruling on the company’s monopoly in August.
Google has dismissed the idea of a breakup as “radical”.
Adam Kovasevich, chief executive of industry trade group Chamber of Progress, said the government’s demands were “outrageous” and deviated from legal standards, rather than narrowly tailored remedies.
The trial, which ended last year, investigated Google’s secret agreements with smartphone manufacturers, 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 the arrangement gave Google unprecedented access to user data, allowing it to build its search engine into a globally dominant platform.
From this position, Google expanded its tech and data collection 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, 95 percent, on mobile devices.
The US government currently has five cases pending against the tech giant over antitrust concerns after the Biden administration took a tougher stance on reining in the companies’ dominance.
If pursued by the Trump administration, the two lawsuits against Amazon, Meta, and Apple, as well as Google, could take years to litigate.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
