US regulators seek to break up Google, forcing Chrome sale as part of monopoly punishment

U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade.

The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Justice calls for sweeping punishments that would include a sale of Google’s industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions to prevent Android from favoring its own search engine.

A sale of Chrome “will permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” Justice Department lawyers argued in their filing.

Click here to read more.

The Center for Journalism & Liberty at Open Markets Weighs in on the DOJ’s Final Proposed Remedies for Google Search Monopoly 

Press Release | Open Markets Institute

Washington, DC - Center for Journalism & Liberty (CJL) at the Open Markets Institute Director Dr. Courtney Radsch shared the following statement in response to the proposed final judgement the Department of Justice has put forward to address Google’s monopoly over online search.

“The trial for this case revealed that Google’s self-dealing behavior to monopolize the search market was facilitated by its ownership and control of both Chrome and Android. Structural separations are an effective and necessary measure to prevent this behavior today and in the future.” 

“We welcome the forward-looking approach of the DOJ that focuses on the pivotal role that AI-assisted search and other AI-enabled features will play in Google’s ability to continue to unduly entrench its market power in our information ecosystem.” 

“Measures related to licensing Google’s search index data and requirements to give advertisers more control over their ad spending can be transformative not only for consumers, but also for news publishers, who have long faced the effects of a behemoth gobbling up ad dollars based on anticompetitive behavior.” 

CJL Senior Reporter Karina Montoya covered both the Google search and Google ad tech trials extensively. You can find her reporting here and here.   

On Tuesday, Center for Journalism & Liberty (CJL) at the Open Markets Institute submitted a detailed letter to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, advocating for decisive action to dismantle Google’s monopoly over online search and search text advertising. Read the recommendations here.