The US Department of Justice (DOJ) wants to force Alphabet-owned Google to sell its Chrome internet browser. The organization will apply to the US judge for this. The news agency Reuters reported this information with reference to Bloomberg News.
According to Bloomberg's report, a US judge ruled last August that Google illegally monopolized the search market. The Justice Department will appeal to that judge to compel Google to take measures related to artificial intelligence and its Android smartphone operating system.
Google controls which ads users see while browsing the Chrome browser. Chrome usually uses Google Search. Also, the browser collects important information for Google's advertising business. Chrome is estimated to hold more than two-thirds of the global browser market share.
The Judiciary did not comment on the application.
In a statement, Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs, said the DOJ is pursuing a “revolutionary agenda” that goes far beyond the legal issues of the case and will harm consumers.
The move would be one of the biggest initiatives by the Biden administration against the monopoly of big tech companies. But ultimately, Donald Trump's re-election as president may have the biggest impact on the case.
Two months before the election, Trump claimed he wanted to crack down on Google because he believed Google was campaigning against him. But a month later, Trump questioned whether it would really be the right decision to break up Google!
Google will appeal against US District Judge Amit Mehta's final ruling. Judge Mehta is likely to deliver the judgment by August 2025.
The accused proposed various possible solutions through the case. The company pays Apple and other companies billions of dollars each year to keep Google as the default search engine on tablets and smartphones. Settlements are offered in cases to terminate such exclusive agreements. Apart from this, it was also proposed to sell some parts of Google's business like Chrome and Android operating system.
An important source of revenue for Google is the Chrome browser. Because the market share of Chrome is very high. In addition, when users sign in to Chrome with a Google Account, Google can use user information to serve more targeted search ads.
Google claims that the company's search engine has attracted users through its quality. It is facing strong competition from Amazon and other sites and users can choose any other search engine as default search engine if they want.
