Following a historic finding that the internet giant unlawfully monopolized online search, the US Justice Department and a group of states sought significant changes to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, including the forced sale of the company’s Chrome web browser.
Citing the judge’s earlier decision that Chrome strengthened the company’s dominance, antitrust authorities said in a court filing on Wednesday that Google must divest Chrome. The states and the government stated that they would also favor the Android smartphone operating system being sold. However, they suggested a number of restrictions on the business unit since they understood that Google and others may object.
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The Justice Department’s plan to pursue a Chrome sale was previously covered by Bloomberg News. At 10:14 a.m. in New York, Google’s stock was down 5.5% at $166.29.
Google claimed the DOJ’s proposal would undermine its investments in artificial intelligence, threaten Americans’ privacy and security, and impact businesses like Mozilla, which depends on Google’s payment to have its search engine set as the default in the Firefox browser.
The Court’s ruling is far from the scope of DOJ’s absurdly expansive proposal. Kent Walker, the company’s chief legal officer, stated in a statement posted on the company’s website that it will disrupt a variety of Google products that people love and find useful in their daily lives, even beyond Search.
After a hearing next spring, US District Judge Amit Mehta will decide how to restore lost competitiveness from Google’s illegal actions. The brief detailed a 10-year remedy proposal for him. Upon completion of the proceedings, the judge will mandate that Google implement the business modifications he deems suitable.
According to the plan, Google would not be allowed to engage into exclusive agreements like the ones at the heart of the dispute, where it paid to guarantee that its search engine was the default one that came pre-installed on devices or browsers. The business would have to provide wireless carriers and smartphone manufacturers the option to show users a choice screen as part of its current agreements.
In order to help prospective competitors enhance their goods, the Justice Department and states also stated that Google ought to be obliged to grant licenses to them for both its search results and the underlying click and query data. Google is required to incorporate all content from its own domains, including YouTube, into its own search service as part of that agreement.
Google’s adherence to the court order would be monitored by a technical committee consisting of five members.
This summer, Mehta declared that Google had violated antitrust regulations in the markets for search text ads and online searches. The government’s first comprehensive plan to mitigate the harm caused by Google’s unlawful monopoly was filed on Wednesday. In October, it sent an outline outlining some first thoughts on potential remediation methods.
The company will have the chance to submit its own views next month, with the Justice Department offering additional perspective in March ahead of a planned two-week hearing in April. The Trump administration, which is set to take office in January, could opt to make changes to the proposed injunction in March.
The Justice Department proposed some limits on Google related to AI, saying the burgeoning field provides the most likely long-term path for a new generation of search competitors.
The proposal would sharply curtail Google s potential dealmaking and investments, barring it from acquiring, investing in or collaborating in any way with any search or digital ad providers. That also applies to any company that controls where consumers search for information, the agency said, including query-based AI products.
If approved, the government s request would require Google to divest from any existing partnerships a provision that may call into question the search giant s investment in AI startup Anthropic.
Under the proposal, the company also would be prohibited from offering exclusive deals to content providers. The DOJ is reserving the option to force a divestiture of Android later, if Google does not comply with the rest of the ruling.
At Google s trial last year, Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella raised the specter of Google locking up key websites and content sources for its exclusive use to train AI models. In the time since, AI companies have been snapping up licensing deals to feed their models more content. Reddit Inc. said in February that it had inked more than $200 million in licensing deals with AI companies that want to use its content.
More stories like this are available onbloomberg.com
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