The US Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business to eliminate its online search monopoly.
In a court filing late Tuesday, federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open up the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products to competitors.
“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little to no incentive to compete for users,” antitrust enforcers wrote in the filing. “Completely remedying these damages requires not only ending Google’s distribution control today, but also ensuring that Google cannot control distribution tomorrow.”
To this end, the department said it plans to request structural changes to prevent Google from exploiting products such as its Chrome browser, the Android operating system, AI products or the app store to benefit its search business. Prosecutors also seem to focus on Google’s default search agreements in the file and have said that any proposed remedy would seek to limit or prohibit these deals.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president for regulatory affairs, said in response to the file that the Justice Department was “already flagging questions that go well beyond the specific legal issues” in this case. “Government overreach in a fast-growing industry may have unintended negative consequences for American innovation and American consumers.”
US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google’s search engine illegally exploited its dominance to squash competition and stifle innovation. He has outlined a timetable for a trial on the proposed remedies next spring and plans to issue a decision by August 2025.
Google has already said it plans to appeal Mehta’s decision, but the tech giant must wait until it finalizes a remedy before doing so. The appeals process could take up to five years, predicted George Hay, a law professor at Cornell University who was the chief economist of the Justice Department’s antitrust division for much of the 1970s.
