WASHINGTON – The United States said on Oct 8 that it may ask a judge to force Alphabet’s Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it noted are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.
In a landmark case, a judge found in August that Google, which processes 90 per cent of US internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. The Justice Department’s proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how people find information online, while shrinking Google’s revenues and giving its competitors more room to grow.
“Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow,” the Justice Department said.
The proposed fixes will also aim to keep Google’s past dominance from extending to the burgeoning business of artificial intelligence (AI), prosecutors said.
The filing represents Washington’s first push to dismantle a company for illegal monopolisation since unsuccessful efforts to break up Microsoft two decades ago. The 32-page filing lays out a framework of potential options for the judge to consider as the case moves to the remedy phase.
Antitrust enforcers said Google gained scale and data benefits from its illegal distribution agreements with other tech companies that made its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers.
The Justice Department is also considering asking for an order that would require Google to make available to rivals the indexes, data and models it uses for Google search and AI-assisted search features.
It might also ask the court to end Google’s payments to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default on new devices.
Google has made annual payments – US$26.3 billion (S$34.3 billion) in 2021 – to companies including