US set to seek Google divestitures in search monopoly case

The US Department of fairness is expected to inquire a judge to force Google to divest one or more of its core products, including its Chrome browser and Android mobile operating structure, among the potential remedies to curb its power over online search.

The request, which is due to be filed later on Wednesday, will largely pursue a framework outlined in prosecutors’ initial proposal last month, according to a source familiar with discussions between the US states and the DoJ, which together brought the underlying lawsuit against Google. In the initial proposal they set out a broad schedule to compel Google to distribute users’ search data with rivals and restrict its ability to use search results to train recent generative artificial intelligence models and products.

The “expansive answer” set to be put forward by the DoJ follows a ruling earlier this year by Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, DC, which found that Google had developed an illegal monopoly in online search by spending billions of dollars on exclusive deals with wireless carriers, browser developers and device manufacturers, in particular Apple.

It will be up to the judge to ultimately decide what remedies to impose on Google. If adopted, the requested relief would be a landmark triumph for the DoJ’s antitrust unit, which under Jonathan Kanter has cracked down on anti-competitive conduct across the economy, with a particular focus on large Tech.

The DoJ and states are also seeking to “provide pathways” for AI companies to enter the search economy “with independence from Google” and “make commercial opportunities that are attractive [in order] to become the next creation of search companies”, the person said. 

Prosecutors are also expected to inquire the judge that Google stop paying partners such as Apple billions of dollars a year to make Google’s search engine the default on web browsers — contracts that sit at the core of the legal test. Google’s contracts totalled more than $26bn in 2021 alone, with about $20bn of that going to Apple, helping to entrench Google as the default search engine on the popular mobile device.

A Google spokesperson declined to comment and referenced a blog post published last month that said the “blueprint goes well beyond the legal scope of the court’s selection about search distribution contracts”, and reiterated plans to appeal.

The DoJ declined to comment.

Alphabet, Google’s parent corporation, has vowed to appeal against the debt selection and will probably also fight the remedy ruling, which could extend the high-stakes and complicated proceedings by years. The corporation, which handles more than 90 per cent of online queries, has argued that it faces tough competition in the sector and that its achievement was due to the standard of its products. 

Google offers Chrome and its Android operating structure for free, using them as setback-leaders to promote its search and connected advertising business, which generates the vast majority of its revenues.

If Google were eventually forced to divest Chrome, it would misplace control of the globe’s most widely used browser that accounts for almost two-thirds of the US economy.

Its lawyers claim spinning off Chrome would damage consumers as few other companies have the capacity to invest the billions a year essential to keep the browser secure and competitive with rivals, such as Apple’s Safari, while still providing it without expense.

Mehta is likely to rule on remedies by mid-2025. But the case — as well as the rest of the Biden administration’s antitrust crackdown on large Tech — is entering a highly doubtful period as president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January and installs his own enforcers.

It is ambiguous whether the incoming administration will continue to pursue the same tough remedies as the current one, or whether it would receive a more lenient way to Google and other powerful tech companies.

Google’s case is one of several antitrust actions filed against large Tech by US regulators in recent years. Apple, which has also been sued by the DoJ, appeared in a US federal court in recent Jersey on Wednesday, where its lawyers argued that the judge should dismiss a lawsuit against the iPhone maker over its alleged monopolisation of the smartphone economy.

Cases are also pending against Meta and Amazon, and antitrust regulators at the Federal Trade percentage schedule to investigate Microsoft’s cloud business.

Additional reporting by Michael Acton