OP 22 November, 2024 - 07:17 PM
The Justice Department said Wednesday that Google must sell its Chrome browser to break the company’s illegal monopoly on online search, according to a filing in the District of Columbia Circuit Court .
District Court Judge Amit Mehta will ultimately decide what Google’s final punishment will be, a decision that could significantly alter one of the world’s largest businesses and the structure of the internet as it exists today. That phase of the trial is expected to begin in 2025.
Judge Mehta ruled in August that Google is an illegal monopoly because it abuses its power over the search business. The judge also took issue with Google’s control of various gateways to the internet and its payments to third parties to maintain its status as the default search engine.
The Justice Department’s latest filing said Google’s ownership of the Android and Chrome operating systems, which are key distribution channels for its search business, poses a “significant challenge” to the enforcement of protections that would make the search market competitive.
The Justice Department also proposed other measures to break the search giant’s monopoly, including spinning off its Android mobile operating system to Google. The filing noted that Google and other partners might oppose such a spinoff, and proposed tough measures, including a ban on using Android to disadvantage competitors in the search market. The Justice Department hinted that if Google fails to impose restrictions on Android, it should be forced to sell it.
Prosecutors also argued that the company should be barred from entering into exclusionary third-party contracts with browser or phone companies, like the contract Google entered into with Apple that required its search engine to be the default on all Apple products.
The Justice Department also argued that Google should license its search data and ad click data to competitors.
The Justice Department also imposed conditions barring Google from entering the browser market for five years after the company releases Chrome. In addition, after the sale of Chrome, Google must not acquire or own any competing text search, query-based AI, or advertising technologies. The document also included provisions that would allow publishers to opt out of Google using their data to train AI models.
If the court upholds these measures, Google would suffer a major setback as a competitor to OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic in the AI space.
Google's response:
In response, Google said the Justice Department’s latest proposal is a “radical interventionist agenda” that would harm U.S. residents and the country’s global technological dominance.
“The Justice Department’s proposal goes beyond the court’s ruling. It would disrupt a range of Google products — beyond search — that people love and find useful in their daily lives,” Google’s president of global affairs and general counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post.
Walker further argued that the proposal would threaten user security and privacy, degrade the quality of Chrome and Android, and hurt services like Mozilla Firefox, which depends on Google Search.
He added that if the proposal passes, it would make it harder for people to access Google Search and hurt the company’s prospects in the race for AI.
“The Justice Department’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses, and threaten America’s global economic and technological leadership at a time when it is needed most,” he said.
The company is set to file a response to the filing next month.
source : https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/doj-go...-monopoly/
District Court Judge Amit Mehta will ultimately decide what Google’s final punishment will be, a decision that could significantly alter one of the world’s largest businesses and the structure of the internet as it exists today. That phase of the trial is expected to begin in 2025.
Judge Mehta ruled in August that Google is an illegal monopoly because it abuses its power over the search business. The judge also took issue with Google’s control of various gateways to the internet and its payments to third parties to maintain its status as the default search engine.
The Justice Department’s latest filing said Google’s ownership of the Android and Chrome operating systems, which are key distribution channels for its search business, poses a “significant challenge” to the enforcement of protections that would make the search market competitive.
The Justice Department also proposed other measures to break the search giant’s monopoly, including spinning off its Android mobile operating system to Google. The filing noted that Google and other partners might oppose such a spinoff, and proposed tough measures, including a ban on using Android to disadvantage competitors in the search market. The Justice Department hinted that if Google fails to impose restrictions on Android, it should be forced to sell it.
Prosecutors also argued that the company should be barred from entering into exclusionary third-party contracts with browser or phone companies, like the contract Google entered into with Apple that required its search engine to be the default on all Apple products.
The Justice Department also argued that Google should license its search data and ad click data to competitors.
The Justice Department also imposed conditions barring Google from entering the browser market for five years after the company releases Chrome. In addition, after the sale of Chrome, Google must not acquire or own any competing text search, query-based AI, or advertising technologies. The document also included provisions that would allow publishers to opt out of Google using their data to train AI models.
If the court upholds these measures, Google would suffer a major setback as a competitor to OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic in the AI space.
Google's response:
In response, Google said the Justice Department’s latest proposal is a “radical interventionist agenda” that would harm U.S. residents and the country’s global technological dominance.
“The Justice Department’s proposal goes beyond the court’s ruling. It would disrupt a range of Google products — beyond search — that people love and find useful in their daily lives,” Google’s president of global affairs and general counsel Kent Walker wrote in a blog post.
Walker further argued that the proposal would threaten user security and privacy, degrade the quality of Chrome and Android, and hurt services like Mozilla Firefox, which depends on Google Search.
He added that if the proposal passes, it would make it harder for people to access Google Search and hurt the company’s prospects in the race for AI.
“The Justice Department’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses, and threaten America’s global economic and technological leadership at a time when it is needed most,” he said.
The company is set to file a response to the filing next month.
source : https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/20/doj-go...-monopoly/
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