What a Forced Google Sale of Chrome Would Mean for 3.45B Users
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Google faced off in court on Monday in a hearing to determine what penalties the tech giant should face for breaching antitrust laws.
Lawyers for the DOJ argued that Google's monopoly over internet search should be broken up by forcing it to sell its Chrome web browser.
Newsweek has reached out to Google via email for comment on Monday.
The Context
The DOJ and several dozen state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Google in 2020, accusing the company of paying billions of dollars to Apple, Samsung and other companies to make Google the default search provider on smartphones and web browsers.
In August, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google had violated U.S. antitrust laws, writing, "Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly."
The logo of U.S. tech giant Google in pictured in Berlin on September 22, 2015.
The logo of U.S. tech giant Google in pictured in Berlin on September 22, 2015.
Britta Pedersen/AP
What To Know
On Monday, a three-week hearing began at E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse in Washington, D.C., to decide how to address Google's monopoly.
In an opening statement, David Dahlquist, DOJ lawyer, said he wanted the punishment for Google to serve as a warning to others, The New York Times reports. He told the court that the government was "not here for a Pyrrhic victory."
The DOJ wants Google to divest Chrome, to open its search data to competitors and stop paying other tech companies and smartphone makers to make Google the default search provider. It even suggested that the Silicon Valley company should be forced to sell off Android if the changes do not effectively break up the monopoly.
Google argued that the court should only focus on the deals the company made with others such as Apple to be the default browser on its smartphones and other tech, rather than the DOJ's broader suggestions. It believes that it should still be allowed to pay for prime placement for Google, but said that the deals should be renegotiated every year. Companies would also be allowed to choose different browsers for other products, like private browsing.
Lawyers for both sides said that whatever ruling the judge made on the hearing, it would likely have a huge impact on Google's artificial intelligence Gemini, and the global spread of AI.
If Mehta accepts the DOJ's recommendations, the breakup could significantly alter the technology industry's landscape.
It would likely damage Google's integrated services, potentially affecting user experience and the company's revenue model, which heavily relies on advertising. It could also be challenging to find a buyer for Chrome as a stand-alone product without the support of the rest of Google's ecosystem.
Around 3.45 billion people around the world use Google and could be affected by a change.
What People Are Saying
Dahlquist told the court: "This is the time for the court to tell Google and all other monopolists who are out there listening, and they are listening, that there are consequences when you break the antitrust laws."
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog post Monday that the DOJ's proposal would "hamstring how we develop AI, and have a government-appointed committee regulate the design and development of our products. That would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture. We're in a fiercely competitive global race with China for the next generation of technology leadership, and Google is at the forefront of American companies making scientific and technological breakthroughs."
John Gruber, author of tech blog Daring Fireball, said: "Chrome is not a stand-alone business. They're both just appendages of Google that serve only as distribution channels for the advertising Google shows in search results."
What Happens Next
Mehta is expected to order Google to take certain measures or "remedies" to address its monopoly by summer's end.
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