The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has called for Google to sell Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, as part of a series of proposed actions aimed at curbing the company’s monopoly on online search.
In a court filing late Wednesday, government lawyers also suggested that District Judge Amit Mehta compel Google to cease entering into agreements with companies such as Apple and Samsung, which make Google’s search engine the default on many smartphones and browsers.
These proposed actions follow a significant anti-competition ruling in August, in which Judge Mehta determined that Google had unlawfully suppressed competition in online search.
The DOJ’s filing was supported by several US states, which argue that these changes are necessary to break up a monopolized market.
“Restoring competition to the markets for general search and search text advertising as they exist today will require reactivating the competitive process that Google has long stifled,” the government lawyers wrote.
In response, Google said that with its proposals, the DOJ “chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”
“[The] DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision,” said Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google.
“It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.”
Google is expected to counter with its own proposed remedies by 20 December.
Judge Mehta is expected to make a ruling by the summer of 2025.
According to web traffic analysis platform Statcounter, Google’s search engine currently holds around 90% of the global online search market.
Government attorneys argued that Google’s control of both the Chrome browser and the Android operating system has enabled the company to direct users toward its search engine.
As part of the proposed remedies, the DOJ also suggested that Google be prohibited from re-entering the browser market for five years.
The DOJ also proposed court oversight of Android to ensure the company refrains from using its ecosystem to “favour its general search services and search text ad monopolies.”
A new administration
The DOJ’s case against Google was filed in the final months of Donald Trump’s first administration.
With the President-elect set to return to the White House on January 20, there are growing questions about whether his new administration will adopt a different stance on the case.
“It would be odd for the second Trump administration to back off a lawsuit that they filed themselves,” said Rebecca Allensworth, associate dean for research and anti-trust professor at Vanderbilt Law School.
Even if Trump sought to stop the case from proceeding, which Prof Allensworth said is unlikely, the states listed as plaintiffs could proceed on their own.
“So, given that, they can’t make it go away,” she said. “I think that the federal government will stay on it but just how hard they’ll push and what they’ll ask for, I think, is really uncertain.”
The proposed changes could play an important role in restoring competition to the online search market, according to Professor Laura Phillips-Sawyer of the University of Georgia School of Law.
The user data that Google secured because of its dominance in search helped “refine Google’s search algorithm and sell text ads,” Professor Phillips-Sawyer said.
“But, those contracts also make it impossible for any newcomer in search to secure a distribution channel, and without any real possibility of reaching consumers, no one will invest in such innovation.”
She says if Mehta accepts the governments proposals, competitors to Google – including new entrants – may have the chance to thrive.