Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
US Regulators Seek to Break Up Google, Forcing Chrome Sale as Part of Monopoly Punishment
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 2 weeks ago on
November 21, 2024

US regulators propose breaking up Google, including selling Chrome, to address monopoly concerns in search engine market. (AP File)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade.

The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice calls for sweeping punishments that would include a sale of Google’s industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions to prevent Android from favoring its own search engine.

A sale of Chrome “will permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” Justice Department lawyers argued in their filing.

Although regulators stopped short of demanding Google sell Android too, they asserted the judge should make it clear the company could still be required to divest its smartphone operating system if its oversight committee continues to see evidence of misconduct.

Biden Administration Seeks Severe Punishment

The broad scope of the recommended penalties underscores how severely regulators operating under President Joe Biden’s administration believe Google should be punished following an August ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that branded the company as a monopolist.

The Justice Department decision-makers who will inherit the case after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year might not be as strident. The Washington, D.C. court hearings on Google’s punishment are scheduled to begin in April and Mehta is aiming to issue his final decision before Labor Day.

If Mehta embraces the government’s recommendations, Google would be forced to sell its 16-year-old Chrome browser within six months of the final ruling. But the company certainly would appeal any punishment, potentially prolonging a legal tussle that has dragged on for more than four years.

Proposed Restrictions on Google’s Operations

Besides seeking a Chrome spinoff and a corralling of the Android software, the Justice Department wants the judge to ban Google from forging multibillion-dollar deals to lock in its dominant search engine as the default option on Apple’s iPhone and other devices. It would also ban Google from favoring its own services, such as YouTube or its recently-launched artificial intelligence platform, Gemini.

Regulators also want Google to license the search index data it collects from people’s queries to its rivals, giving them a better chance at competing with the tech giant. On the commercial side of its search engine, Google would be required to provide more transparency into how it sets the prices that advertisers pay to be listed near the top of some targeted search results.

Kent Walker, Google’s chief legal officer, lashed out at the Justice Department for pursuing “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology.” In a blog post, Walker warned the “overly broad proposal” would threaten personal privacy while undermining Google’s early leadership in artificial intelligence, “perhaps the most important innovation of our time.”

Wary of Google’s increasing use of artificial intelligence in its search results, regulators also advised Mehta to ensure websites will be able to shield their content from Google’s AI training techniques.

Potential Impact on Google’s Business

The measures, if they are ordered, threaten to upend a business expected to generate more than $300 billion in revenue this year.

“The playing field is not level because of Google’s conduct, and Google’s quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired,” the Justice Department asserted in its recommendations. “The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”

It’s still possible that the Justice Department could ease off attempts to break up Google, especially if Trump takes the widely expected step of replacing Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who was appointed by Biden to oversee the agency’s antitrust division.

Although the case targeting Google was originally filed during the final months of Trump’s first term in office, Kanter oversaw the high-profile trial that culminated in Mehta’s ruling against Google. Working in tandem with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, Kanter took a get-tough stance against Big Tech that triggered other attempted crackdowns on industry powerhouses such as Apple and discouraged many business deals from getting done during the past four years.

Trump recently expressed concerns that a breakup might destroy Google but didn’t elaborate on alternative penalties he might have in mind. “What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair,” Trump said last month. Matt Gaetz, the former Republican congressman that Trump nominated to be the next U.S. Attorney General, has previously called for the breakup of Big Tech companies.

Gaetz faces a tough confirmation hearing.

This latest filing gave Kanter and his team a final chance to spell out measures that they believe are needed to restore competition in search. It comes six weeks after Justice first floated the idea of a breakup in a preliminary outline of potential penalties.

But Kanter’s proposal is already raising questions about whether regulators seek to impose controls that extend beyond the issues covered in last year’s trial, and — by extension — Mehta’s ruling.

Banning the default search deals that Google now pays more than $26 billion annually to maintain was one of the main practices that troubled Mehta in his ruling.

It’s less clear whether the judge will embrace the Justice Department’s contention that Chrome needs to be spun out of Google, and the recommendation that Android should be completely walled off from the company’s own search engine.

“It is probably going a little beyond,” Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh said of the Chrome breakup. “The remedies should match the harm, it should match the transgression. This does seem a little beyond that pale.”

Google rival DuckDuckGo, whose executives testified during last year’s trial, asserted the Justice Department is simply doing what needs to be done to rein in a brazen monopolist.

“Undoing Google’s overlapping and widespread illegal conduct over more than a decade requires more than contract restrictions: it requires a range of remedies to create enduring competition,” Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo’s senior vice president of public affairs, said in a statement.

Trying to break up Google harks back to a similar punishment initially imposed on Microsoft a quarter century ago following another major antitrust trial that culminated in a federal judge deciding the software maker had illegally used his Windows operating system for PCs to stifle competition.

However, an appeals court overturned an order that would have broken up Microsoft, a precedent many experts believe will make Mehta reluctant to go down a similar road with the Google case.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Small Business Owners Brace for Trump’s Proposed Tariffs

DON'T MISS

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Hangs Near Its Records

DON'T MISS

Three Climbers From the US and Canada Are Missing on New Zealand’s Highest Peak

DON'T MISS

Jill Biden’s Final Foreign Trip as First Lady Will Close With Her and Trump at Notre Dame Cathedral

DON'T MISS

City of Fresno’s Union Construction Pact Fails to Deliver Promised Local Jobs

DON'T MISS

Class and Parking Shortages Frustrate Students at Crowded Fresno State

DON'T MISS

So Much for Trump’s Fantasy of a Quieter Middle East

DON'T MISS

Rams Claim CB Emmanuel Forbes off Waivers From Washington

DON'T MISS

Kendrick Lamar and SZA Announce 2025 North American Stadium Tour

DON'T MISS

49ers Lose RBs McCaffrey and Mason, Turn to Guerendo

UP NEXT

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Hangs Near Its Records

UP NEXT

Three Climbers From the US and Canada Are Missing on New Zealand’s Highest Peak

UP NEXT

Jill Biden’s Final Foreign Trip as First Lady Will Close With Her and Trump at Notre Dame Cathedral

UP NEXT

City of Fresno’s Union Construction Pact Fails to Deliver Promised Local Jobs

UP NEXT

Class and Parking Shortages Frustrate Students at Crowded Fresno State

UP NEXT

So Much for Trump’s Fantasy of a Quieter Middle East

UP NEXT

Rams Claim CB Emmanuel Forbes off Waivers From Washington

UP NEXT

Kendrick Lamar and SZA Announce 2025 North American Stadium Tour

UP NEXT

49ers Lose RBs McCaffrey and Mason, Turn to Guerendo

UP NEXT

Trump Wants to Shake Up Health Care. Many Americans Don’t Mind.

Jill Biden’s Final Foreign Trip as First Lady Will Close With Her and Trump at Notre Dame Cathedral

23 minutes ago

City of Fresno’s Union Construction Pact Fails to Deliver Promised Local Jobs

1 hour ago

Class and Parking Shortages Frustrate Students at Crowded Fresno State

3 hours ago

So Much for Trump’s Fantasy of a Quieter Middle East

3 hours ago

Rams Claim CB Emmanuel Forbes off Waivers From Washington

3 hours ago

Kendrick Lamar and SZA Announce 2025 North American Stadium Tour

3 hours ago

49ers Lose RBs McCaffrey and Mason, Turn to Guerendo

3 hours ago

Trump Wants to Shake Up Health Care. Many Americans Don’t Mind.

4 hours ago

Going the Distance: Gray and Duarte Whisker Apart as End of CA-13 Race Draws Near

4 hours ago

Trent Williams’ Wife, Sondra, Says Their Son Was Stillborn

4 hours ago

Small Business Owners Brace for Trump’s Proposed Tariffs

Small businesses are bracing for stiff tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has proposed as one of his first actions when he takes offi...

9 minutes ago

9 minutes ago

Small Business Owners Brace for Trump’s Proposed Tariffs

13 minutes ago

Stock Market Today: Wall Street Hangs Near Its Records

17 minutes ago

Three Climbers From the US and Canada Are Missing on New Zealand’s Highest Peak

23 minutes ago

Jill Biden’s Final Foreign Trip as First Lady Will Close With Her and Trump at Notre Dame Cathedral

1 hour ago

City of Fresno’s Union Construction Pact Fails to Deliver Promised Local Jobs

3 hours ago

Class and Parking Shortages Frustrate Students at Crowded Fresno State

3 hours ago

So Much for Trump’s Fantasy of a Quieter Middle East

Rams
3 hours ago

Rams Claim CB Emmanuel Forbes off Waivers From Washington

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend