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Title: Department of Justice confirms that it wants Google to sell off Chrome

Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2024 09:49:29 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/department-...

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has released a 23-page document calling
for the breakup of Google, including a sale of the Chrome web browser and
restrictions on Android, confirming previous reports. Selling Chrome "will
permanently stop GoogleΓÇÖs 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," DoJ lawyers argued in the filing.

The regulator said that Google must also stop favoring its own search engine
in Android. If the company fails to do that, DoJ lawyers argued that it
should also be required to divest its mobile device operating system. They
also proposed that Google syndicate search results separately and sell its
click and query data to aid rival search engines and AI startups.

In a response on its Keyword blog, Google said the DoJ's "staggering
proposal" would harm consumers and affect US tech leadership. "[The] DoJ
chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and
America's global leadership," wrote Global Affairs president and chief legal
officer, Kent Walker. "DoJΓÇÖs wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond
the CourtΓÇÖs decision. It would break a range of Google products ΓÇö even
beyond Search ΓÇö that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives."

All of this started back in 2020, when the DoJ and multiple states filed a
lawsuit arguing that Google paid billions to device manufacturers to secure
default status for its search engine. Then in August this year, federal judge
Amit Mehta ruled that Google "is a monopolist" in the industry and used its
power to charge "supracompetitive prices for general search text ads." (As of
last year, Google controlled around 90 percent of the search engine market,
processing nearly 9 billion searches per day.)

The DoJ's proposals to breakup Google are based on that ruling, but the
makeup and philosophy of the department is likely to change drastically in a
Trump administration. Indeed, Google's Keyword blog seems to be aimed
directly at the incoming president, invoking dangers to security, required
disclosure to foreign companies and the mandating of "government
micromanagement." Recently, Trump himself weighed in on the matter,
suggesting a breakup might be too drastic. "What you can do without breaking
it up is make sure itΓÇÖs more fair," he said last month.

All of this is still at an early stage, with many court cases and appeals
likely to come. Still, it would represent a seismic shift in how Google, a
company with 182,500 employees, does business. More importantly, it could
drastically affect how the internet works, as over 60 percent of web
interactions start with a search query ΓÇö and most of those are done using
Google search.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-
tech/department-of-justice-confirms-that-it-wants-google-to-sell-off-chrome-
094929822.html?src=rss

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