Google must sell Chrome to end search monopoly, US prosecutors say | Business and economic news

The Justice Department said Google had “deprived competitors” of the opportunity to expand their search engine market share.

Alphabet’s Google should be forced to sell its Chrome browser and share data with competitors, prosecutors in the United States say, as part of a list of proposals aimed at ending the tech giant’s monopoly on Internet search.

In a court filing on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Google, which controls about 90 percent of the online search market, should not be allowed to re-enter the browser market for five years and that it should sell its Android mobile devices . operating system if other attempts to restore competition fail.

The Justice Department also wants U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to end Google’s multibillion-dollar agreements with device makers that make its search engine the default on tablets and smartphones.

“Google’s unlawful conduct deprived competitors not only of important distribution channels, but also of distribution partners who might otherwise have provided competitors with access to these markets in new and innovative ways,” prosecutors said.

The changes, if approved by Mehta, would effectively subject Google to a decade of regulation and oversight by a Washington federal court, which ruled in August that the company violated antitrust laws.

The Justice Department sued Google in 2020 as part of a broader effort by antitrust regulators to crack down on big tech companies, including Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Amazon and Apple, and increase competition.

In August, Mehta ruled that Google had spent billions of dollars creating an illegal monopoly over its search engine, using its dominance to stifle competition and stifle innovation.

“The Court finds the following: Google is a monopolist, and it acted as a monopolist to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his 277-page ruling.

Google says its popularity stems from consumers’ desire to use the search engine, which has become synonymous with Internet searches.

He also insisted that the proposals would harm American consumers and businesses and undermine America’s competitiveness in artificial intelligence.

Google will have the opportunity to present its own proposals for improving competition in December.

A trial to rule on the Justice Department’s proposals is scheduled for April, despite any changes to the case made by President-elect Donald Trump’s new antitrust chief.