Google released Chrome in 2008, and it has become synonymous with the company and its search engine. Well, that may not be the case if the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has its way. The DOJ’s antitrust division plans to ask a federal judge to order Google to sell Chrome, Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar with the plan.
In August, federal judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google “is a monopoly” in the search engine industry. Mehta also agreed that Google had used its “monopoly power by setting supra-competitive prices for generic search text ads.” The company uses the data of registered users to create targeted ads, but, according to Mehta, Google does not have the same monopoly power when it comes to the general search advertising market.
In response to this decision, the antitrust authorities are also planning to propose that Google change its data licensing policy. According to the new proposal, Google will syndicate search results separately and sell data on clicks and queries. These moves could help rival search engines and artificial intelligence startups. Officials reportedly considered asking Mehta to force Google to sell Android, but declined the request. In October, the DOJ submitted its first proposals to remedy Google’s actions.
Leigh-Ann Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said that “a government that puts its finger on the scale in this way will harm consumers, developers, and American technological leadership at the very moment it is most needed.”
Mehta’s August ruling was based on a lawsuit filed in 2020 by the Department of Justice and about a fifth of the states, including Florida, Indiana, and Texas. It alleged that Google spends billions of dollars annually on device manufacturers, U.S. wireless carriers, and browser developers “to secure default status for its general search engine and, in many cases, specifically prohibit Google’s contractors from dealing with Google’s competitors.” According to testimony by Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s chief technology officer, the company spent $26.3 billion in 2021 to maintain its default search engine status – most of which likely went to Apple.
In April 2025, there will be a two-week hearing on the changes that Google should implement, and a final decision is expected by August next year.
