DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open its search monopoly

The Department of Justice says that Google indispensable divest the Chrome web browser to reconstruct contention to the online hunt market, and it near the doorway unfastened to requiring the institution to rotation retired Android, too.

The filing includes a wide scope of requirements the DOJ hopes the tribunal volition enforce connected Google — from restricting the institution from entering definite kinds of agreements to much broadly breaking the institution up. The DOJ’s latest connection doubles down connected its petition to rotation retired Google’s Chrome browser, which the authorities views arsenic a cardinal entree constituent for searching the web.

While the authorities isn’t going arsenic acold arsenic to request Google rotation retired its Android business, it’s leaving the enactment open. The anticipation of an Android spin-out could bent implicit Google’s caput to incentivize it against circumventing different remedies, but the authorities says a spin-out could besides beryllium mandated should those different solutions beryllium ineffective astatine restoring contention to the market. The DOJ says Google mightiness adjacent take divestiture itself if the institution doesn’t privation to comply with immoderate of the different rules the authorities is proposing against self-preferencing Google Search successful Android.

Other remedies the authorities is asking the tribunal to enforce see prohibiting Google from offering wealth oregon thing of worth to 3rd parties — including Apple and different phone-makers — to marque Google’s hunt motor the default, oregon to discourage them from hosting hunt competitors. It besides wants to prohibition Google from preferencing its hunt motor connected immoderate owned-and-operated level (like YouTube oregon Gemini), mandate it fto rivals entree its hunt scale astatine “marginal cost, and connected an ongoing basis,” and necessitate Google to syndicate its hunt results, ranking signals, and US-originated query information for 10 years. The DOJ is besides asking that Google fto websites opt-out of its AI overviews without being penalized successful hunt results.

The DOJ volition record a revised mentation of its proposals successful aboriginal March, earlier the authorities and Google instrumentality to the DC District Court successful April for a two-week remedies trial. It’s the 2nd signifier of the litigation, with Mehta present tasked with determining the champion mode to reconstruct contention successful the markets.

The remedies proceedings volition instrumentality spot with a caller administration overseeing the DOJ, which could interaction the sorts of solutions it yet pursues. But the lawsuit was primitively filed during the archetypal Trump administration, which suggests Google won’t beryllium wholly disconnected the hook.

Google and the DOJ are scheduled to present closing arguments successful a separate antitrust case playing retired successful Alexandria, VA connected Monday, regarding its advertizing exertion business.