The United States’ Department of Justice (DoJ) and several states filed a proposal to remedy “Google’s unlawful monopolization” on Wednesday (November 20), suggesting, among other things, that the tech giant sell its Chrome web browser.
This comes after a landmark ruling in August, where Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court of Columbia said, “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”
Here is all you need to know about the DoJ’s proposal, and the context in which it comes.
A landmark antitrust verdict
In recent years, US government agencies have lodged cases against several big tech companies, such as Amazon, Meta and Google, accusing them of creating monopolies and stifling competition for other market players.
The DoJ, and several US states, sued Google in 2020 for illegally cementing its dominance, in part by annually paying the likes of Apple and Samsung billions of dollars to have Google automatically handle search queries on smartphones and web browsers.
Judge Mehta in August delivered a landmark verdict in the case which, beyond deeming Google to be a monopolist, paved the way for subsequent action to address the issue — including breaking up the country’s various business units. Specifically, Mehta told the DoJ and the states that brought the antitrust case in 2020 (including California, Colorado, New Jersey and New York) to submit solutions to correct Google’s search monopoly.
DoJ, states’ solutions
The petitioners’ proposal notes, “Google’s unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways.”
To reverse these effects, the solutions “must enable and encourage the development of an unfettered search ecosystem that induces entry, competition, and innovation as rivals vie to win the business of consumers and advertisers.”
The proposal discusses the possibility of Google divesting from Android, the mobile operating system that runs on the smartphones of major companies, such as Samsung, Xiaomi, Moto, etc. This would prevent Google from using Android to “exclude rival search providers” since the phones currently have Google Chrome as the default search engine.
It further suggests that Google should be banned from entering into exclusive agreements with content publishers (such as news websites), and from acquisitions of its competitors or potential competitors in the general search domain without prior approval.
Arguing for Google to divest from Chrome, the proposal quotes the August judgment: “Google’s near-complete control of the most efficient search distribution channels is a major barrier to entry.” Its control over the market also “disincentivizes the emergence of new competition,” the judgment had said.
The proposal says Google should be prohibited from owning any web browser and “from owning or acquiring any investment or interest in any search or search text ad rival, search distributor, or rival query-based AI product or ads technology.” Google currently owns Gemini, an AI chatbot.
Further, it requires Google to provide rivals (and potential rivals) with user-side and ad data for 10 years, at no cost, on a non-discriminatory basis, and with proper privacy safeguards in place.
What happens next
In a blog, Google parent company Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker called the proposal “staggering” and one that pushes a “radical interventionist agenda”. He said, “DoJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardise America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most.”
Walker wrote that the proposal “would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.” He said the proposal would “Chill our investment in artificial intelligence, perhaps the most important innovation of our time, where Google plays a leading role.”
Google will soon get to litigate its concerns in court. According to Reuters, Judge Amit Mehta has scheduled a trial on the proposals for April. However, given that the US President appoints the Attorney General, the head of the DoJ, it is unclear how President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration will act on the issue.
An Associated Press report stated that 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. It would also ban Google from favouring its own services, such as YouTube,” it said.
