In November 2024, the US Justice Department and a group or states asked a federal court to force Google to sell Chrome, its popular web browser.
The request follows a landmark ruling in August 2024 by the US district court for District of Columbia which found Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search. The court asked the Justice Department and the states that brought anti-trust case to submit solutions to correct the search monopoly.
Apart from selling Chrome. the government asked the court to give Google a choice: either sell Android, its operating system for smartphones or bar Google from making its services mandatory on phones that use Android. If this does not work, in future, the government could force the company to sell Android.
The government asked the court to stop Google from entering into paid agreements with Apple and others to be the automatically selected search engine on smartphones and in browsers.
The government asked the court to allow the rival search engines to access Google’s data for a decade.
Since the breakup of Microsoft in 2000, these proposals are the most significant remedies requested in a tech anti-trust case. If these proposals are adopted, it will set the tone for a string of anti-trust cases against other Big Tech companies such as Apple, Amazon and Facebook.
Google’s worst nightmare would be an order to sell Chrome and Android. Chrome is the most popular browser introduced in 2008, having an estimated market share of 67 per cent of the global browser market.
Android operating system that is open source enjoys 71% of market share. It’s being open source means that mobile phone companies use it free, but then it comes bundled with Google apps already installed. The government contends that there is no level playing field.
Legal experts feel that the solution that Google should be forced to sell Chrome may not be accepted by the court, since the same break up remedy in Microsoft’s case in 2000 was overturned by an appeals court.
Google has yet to file its suggestions for fixing the search monopoly by December 2024.
Both sides can modify their suggestions before the arguments open before the court. The ruling is expected by the end of summer.