The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has recently suggested that Google should sell or separate certain parts of its business, especially the Chrome browser, as a remedy for antitrust violations. According to a report by The Washington Post, the DOJ believes that Google’s ownership of Chrome gives it an unfair advantage by steering users toward Google Search and limiting competition from other search engines (like Bing or DuckDuckGo).
Notably, this action follows a federal judge’s ruling that Google illegally maintained a monopoly in the search industry through anti-competitive practices. In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta determined that Google had unlawfully sustained its dominance in search and search advertising.
The report suggests that the Justice Department restated several measures in a new filing to address Google’s alleged anti-competitive practices and promote fair competition in the online search market. First, the DOJ wants Google to sell its Chrome browser to reduce its dominance in web browsing and prevent it from favouring its own search engine.
The Justice Department is also continuing with a proposal introduced during the Biden administration that aims to prevent Google from paying companies – like Apple, smartphone manufacturers, and Mozilla – to set Google Search as the default search engine on their devices and browsers. Additionally, the DOJ is pushing for data-sharing requirements as well, forcing the tech titan to provide certain search-related data to rival search engines so they have a fairer chance to improve their services.
Interestingly, the DOJ initially also proposed that Google divest its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) startups, including Anthropic, as part of antitrust measures. However, after Anthropic expressed that it relies on Google’s investment for continued operations, the DOJ retracted this proposal. Instead, Google will now be required to notify federal and state officials before making new AI investments.
Meanwhile, Google is reportedly preparing to submit its own suggested solutions in response to these allegations. Previously in December 2024, the Mountain View-headquartered company argued that the proposed restrictions go too far and exceed the scope of the court’s ruling, which focused on its deals with partners to distribute Google Search.
In fact, instead, the search giant proposed that it should still be allowed to pay partners like Apple and Mozilla to promote Google Search. However, those partners would also be free to enter agreements with other search providers.
The scenario becomes more significant as Google holds a global search engine market share of over 91%. Specifically, the company accounts for over 95% of the global mobile search market share. According to estimates, Google Search processes 5.9 million searches per minute, which amounts to approximately 8.5 billion searches per day. In terms of financials, Google’s search engine revenue for the first nine months of 2024 was $144.05 billion.
Content originally published on The Tech Media – Global technology news, latest gadget news and breaking tech news.
