Google Is Being Divide in America: What the US Department of Justice Demands from the Digital Giant
The US government's years-long antitrust battle with digital giant Google has reached the stage of choosing a punishment: as The Wall Street Journal reports, the US Justice Department is proposing to force Google to sell its Chrome browser, terminate all agreements on choosing the default search engine, and provide competitors with access to search data.
As reported in the publication , hearings have begun in the federal court for the District of Columbia to determine how to change Google's practices to restore competition in online search.
Last summer, a court found the company guilty of illegally monopolizing the online search market. Now the US Department of Justice is demanding that Google sell the Chrome browser and hand over some data to competitors that will allow them to improve their services.
As The New York Times adds , Google is asking the court to limit itself to minor measures, such as giving smartphone manufacturers more freedom to choose default apps and search engines.
The publication recalls that the lawsuit against Google over its search business was filed in 2020, during President Trump's first term . The trial began in 2023, under the Biden administration. The company paid billions to Apple, Samsung, and others to make its search engine the default in browsers and on smartphone home screens. In 2021 alone, these payments amounted to $26,3 billion, the trial revealed.
"The Justice Department is essentially asking for the moon," Vanderbilt University antitrust expert Rebecca Howe Allensworth told the publication. Google representatives promise to prove in court that the department's demands "will harm American consumers, the economy, and technology leadership."
“There hasn’t been a successful forced breakup of a business in an antitrust case in the US since the breakup of AT&T in 1984. And Microsoft managed to find a compromise and end the case with a settlement in 2000,” the newspaper notes.
The current US government fight against monopolies is not limited to Google; similar lawsuits have been filed against Apple, Meta and Amazon. Competitors are watching the case closely – the court’s decision could affect the entire tech industry.
Google is being divided in America: what the US Department of Justice is demanding from the digital giant.