The United States Ministry of Justice wants Google To sell your Chrome browser As part of his final remedy proposal in a Historical antitrust case.
The proposal, filed on Friday afternoon, indicates that Google must “quickly and completely deactivate the chrome, as well as the assets or services necessary to successfully finish the divestment, to a buyer approved by the complainants to their sole discretion, subject to approving the court and the applicants.” Google should also stop paying partners for preferential treatment of its search engine.
The DoJ also requires Google to provide a prior notification of any new joint venture, collaboration or partnership with any company that competes with Google in research or in research text ads. However, the company no longer has to divest its investments in artificial intelligence, which was part of an initial set of recommendations issued by the complainants last November. The company would always be required to give a prior notification of future AI.
“Thanks to its size and unrestricted power, Google stole consumers and companies with a fundamental promise due to the public – the right to choose from the competing services”, the Declaration of the MJ accompanying deposit complaints. “Google’s illegal driving has created an economic goliath, which wreaked havoc on the market to guarantee that – no matter what’s going on – Google still wins.”
The DoJ officially brought back his file against Google in 2020, the most important technological antitrust case since the battle for years against Microsoft in the 1990s. The trial alleged that Google had used anti -competitive tactics to protect its research domination and forge contracts which guarantee that it is the default search engine on web navigators and smartphones. Due to his hold on research, said the trial, Google can adjust the auction system through which he sells advertisements and increase the prices of advertisers, and make more income from this.
Google argued that its overwhelming success in research – it has a share of almost 90% on the American market – comes from the company offering the best research technology. It also indicates that consumers are easily able to modify their default search engine, and that Google faces the competition from Microsoft and others.
“Doj’s radical proposals continue to travel miles beyond the court’s decision and harm American consumers, the economy and national security,” said Google spokesperson Peter Schotten in a statement sent by email.
The case went to judgment in 2023And in August 2024, the American district judge of the Columbia district, Amit Mehta, judged that Google held an illegal monopolyBoth in general research and general research text announcements.
A large part of the decision has been centered on the contracts that Google has with the manufacturers of devices and browser partners, who use Google as default research technology. According to Mehta’s decision, around 70% of research requests in the United States occur via portals in which Google is the default search engine. Google then shares revenues with these partners, paying them billions of dollars, which disincited smaller research rivals that cannot compete with these contracts, Mehta said.
