The feds want Google to sell its Chrome browser
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that it wants Google (GOOGL) to sell its Chrome web browser as the government looks to break up the tech giant’s dominance in the search engine market.
The move follows an August ruling by a federal judge that found Google violated antitrust laws by monopolizing the online search engine market and pushing out competitors such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing. The Justice Department wrote that making the market for general search and search text advertising competitive requires “reactivating” what Google had blocked.
“Google must promptly and fully divest Chrome to a buyer approved by the Plaintiffs in their sole discretion, subject to terms that the Court and Plaintiffs approve,” the department wrote in its proposed final judgment.
The Justice Department also suggested that Google divest its Android business, preventing Google from using its control to exclude rival search providers. Alternatively, the department asked a federal judge to prevent Google from making its services mandatory on phones that use the Android operating system. Breaking those terms, or other remedies that failed to boost competition could lead the Justice Department to force a sale of Android later down the road.
The government also asks that Google be prevented from entering into paid agreements with third parties such as Apple (AAPL) to be the de-facto search engine on smartphones and in browsers, as well as block Google from enabling preferential services for other platforms it owns, such as YouTube or Gemini.
“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 DOJ said. “The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”
Judge Amit Mehta said in his August decision that Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple allowed it to hike prices for advertisers without any blowback. Analysts have estimated that Apple made $25 billion a year from its deal to make Google the exclusive search engine on its iPhones.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, said in a statement Wednesday that “the DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”
“The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed,” Mulholland said.
Google stock fell by less than 1% in pre-market trading Thursday morning after dropping by just more than 1% on Wednesday. Shares are 26% this year.