The US is considering asking a judge to order the breakup of Google, among the potential remedies in an anti-trust case, which found the tech giant has an illegal monopoly.
90% of American internet searches use Google. Some rivals want the company to be forced to sell its Chrome browser, or licence search results to competitors.
Google has expressed concern over the development, describing the action as radical and sweeping. It warns the proposals risk hurting consumers, businesses and developers.
In a court document, the DOJ laid out possible measures to curb Google’s monopoly, and said that as a remedy, the company could divest from Chrome and Android and could be limited or prohibited from pre-installation agreements with product manufacturers to prioritise the Google browser.
These suggested measures are part of the DOJ’s four-part proposed remedy addressing harms related to Google search distribution and revenue sharing, generation and display of search results, scale of advertising and monetisation, and accumulation and use of data.
The plaintiffs said that Google’s monopoly-funded revenue share payments stop smaller partner companies from conducting business with Google’s rivals. “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 DOJ said.
The DOJ said that Google’s “unlawful conduct” has persisted for more than a decade and therefore unwinding that “illegal behaviour” would take time; therefore, the proposed remedies might change as they continue to engage with “interested parties” before making a final recommendation.
In August, Google lost a major antitrust lawsuit to be branded a monopolist by a judge who pointed to the company’s de facto search engine as having key advantages over its rivals.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” the court said in its verdict. At the time, Google said it would appeal the verdict.
Google’s VP of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland said that the proposed changes are “radical” and could have “unintended consequences” for consumers, businesses and US competitiveness.
Mulholland said that divesting from Chrome and Android could stop these services being free for customers.
“Make no mistake: Breaking them off would change their business models, raise the cost of devices and undermine Android and Google Play in their robust competition with Apple’s iPhone and App Store,” she wrote.
