Google was dealt a legal blow in its antitrust lawsuit with the U.S. government, when the presiding judge, Amit Mehta, determined that the tech giant had violated the Sherman Act. At the time, Mehta declared, "Google is a monopolist."
There was much speculation on how the Department of Justice would respond to the ruling with many suspecting that the DOJ would seek to break up Google.
That may actually come to fruition as Bloomberg reports that the DOJ is going to ask Judge Mehta to force Google to sell off several parts of the company including its Chrome browser. Other recommendations from antitrust officials include recommending the judge "impose data licensing requirements."
If Mehta accepts the DOJs proposals, it could radically alter not only the internet and search but also the AI industry.
The DOJ's Recommendations
Alongside selling off Chrome, the Department of Justice has several proposals coming. One is to force Google to remove the Android operating system from other products, including search and the Google Play Mobile app store.
Google spent years and billions of dollars on exclusive contracts, such as competitors like Apple to maintain its status as the most dominant browser on both phones and browsers. Those contracts helped block search engines like Microsoft's Bing or DuckDuckGo from gaining bigger toeholds in the search engine world. Google has over 90% of search traffic with competitors barely reaching 6% combined.
Having such a dominant position is boon for Google's ad business and enables the company to leverage search in its AI products like Gemini, which is constantly evolving.
An additional proposal would require Google to share more information with advertisers and hand them control over where these ads appear. It would also ban the exclusive contracts the company used to gain its dominant position.
Specifically regarding Search, the antitrust enforcers propose that either Google sell the "click and query" data and syndicate its search results separately. Currently, Google sells highly restricted access to its syndicated search results with restrictions, like preventing their use on mobile. By opening this up, it could help rivals improve or let people build their own search indexes.
How we got here
The case, which was filed during the first Trump presidency in 2020, continued throughout President Joe Biden's administration. It's unclear based on Trump's current cabinet picks and alleged goals for his return to the office if this next administration will continue the lawsuit and enforce it, or simply leave it alone.
Either way, this is a landmark case with the biggest attempt to rein in giant of technology since the government attempted to break up Microsoft over 20 years ago.
Of course, Google strenuously disagrees with the DOJ's stance. Google's vice president of regulatory affairs told Bloomberg that the Justice Department, “continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.” She went on, "the government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.”
The actual trial lasted for 10 weeks in the fall of 2023 with closing remarks happening in May of 2024, with Mehta's decision coming in August. Currently, the judge has set a two-week hearing in April on how Google must remedy its monopolistic behavior. A final ruling is expected in August of 2025.
