The US Justice Department’s top antitrust officials have decided to ask a judge to force Google owner Alphabet to sell its Chrome browser, in a move that could become a landmark crackdown on one of the world’s biggest technology companies. .
The department will ask the judge, who ruled in August that Google illegally monopolized the search market, to impose measures related to artificial intelligence and the Android smartphone operating system, according to people familiar with the plans.
Antitrust authorities, along with states that have joined the case, also plan to recommend on Wednesday that federal Judge Amit Mehta impose data licensing requirements, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing a confidential matter.
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If Mehta accepts the proposals, they have the potential to reshape the online search market and the growing AI industry. The case was dropped during the first Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden. The move marks the most aggressive effort to contain a technology company since Washington tried unsuccessfully to break up Microsoft two decades ago.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, said the Justice Department “continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues of this case.” She added: “The government putting its hand on the scale in this way would harm consumers, developers and American technology leadership at a time when it is needed most.”
Chrome Access
Antitrust enforcers want the judge to order Google to sell Chrome — the world’s most widely used browser — because it represents a crucial access point through which many people use its search engine, the sources said.
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The government has the option to decide whether selling Chrome is necessary at a later time if some of the other aspects of the solution create a more competitive market, the sources said. The Chrome browser controls about 61% of the market in the US, according to StatCounter, a web traffic analysis service.
Government lawyers met with dozens of companies over the past three months as they prepared the recommendation. States are still considering adding some proposals, and some details could change, sources said.
Antitrust officials backed away from a harsher option that would have forced Google to sell Android, the sources said.
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Google Resource
Mehta’s ruling in August, which found that Google violated antitrust laws in both the online search and search text advertising markets, followed a 10-week trial last year. The company said it plans to appeal.
The judge scheduled a two-week hearing in April to discuss what changes Google should make to correct the illegal behavior and plans to issue a final decision by August 2025.
The agency and states agreed to recommend that Google be required to license results and data from its popular search engine and to give websites more options to prevent their content from being used by Google’s artificial intelligence products.
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Antitrust enforcers are poised to propose that Google unbundle its Android smartphone operating system from other products, including search and its Google Play app store, which are currently sold as a bundle. They are also preparing to seek a requirement that would force Google to share more information with advertisers and give them more control over where their ads appear.
Justice Department lawyers and state attorneys general included all of these options in an initial filing in October, as well as a ban on the type of exclusive contracts that were at the heart of the case against Google.
Views on AI
Currently, Google displays artificial intelligence-based answers at the top of its search pages, called “AI Insights”. While websites can opt out of having their information used by Google to create AI models, they cannot afford to opt out of the views as this could harm their visibility in search results, making it difficult for them to reach their customers. .
Web publishers have complained that this feature reduces traffic and advertising revenue since users rarely click through to see the data being used to generate these results.
Regarding data licensing, antitrust enforcers plan to propose two options: for Google to sell the underlying “click and query” data and also to syndicate its search results separately, according to the sources.
Currently, the company sells syndicated search results, but with restrictions, such as preventing their use on mobile devices. Forcing Google to syndicate its search results would allow rival search engines and AI startups to quickly improve their quality, while the data feed would allow others to build their own search index.
© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.
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