Google recently has been deemed guilty of holding an illegal monopoly with its search engine, and it is widely believed that splitting the company is one possible outcome of the ruling. While it is believed that Android may be on the chopping block, Bloomberg (via Tom’s Hardware) recently reported that the target is now Chrome, the tech giant’s web browser.
DOJ Proposes Google To Sell Chrome
The report cited that United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) may soon request Judge Amit Mehta, who is hearing the antitrust case, to force Google to sell its browser business in order to break the company’s illegal dominance on the search engine market. Chrome is one of Google’s most-used product, with a commanding lead in market share that meant it has the power to steer users into using their services while actively hampering the competition.
As such, the data it can collect from the browser can be gigantic and converts into huge sums of advertising money for the search engine giant. The browser is also crucial in directing users to use more of its services, like Gmail, Google Drive, Gemini AI, among other things. Losing this piece of business would likely deal a huge blow to the company, as the effects may extend well beyond the loss of its own web browser.
DOJ was reportedly intending to force the sale of Google’s Android operating system initially, but the latest demands point to a mandate that require Google to separate its operating system to the rest of its services. On paper, this should be similar to how EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) works by allowing the user to choose what browser and services they want to install during the first-time setup.
Google’s response is rather scathing. “The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” said Google VP of Regulatory Affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland. “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.”
Of course, this is still a proposal from DOJ’s part, for now. The actual decision still has to be made by the judge, but knowing past results with Microsoft (and the relative lack of effectiveness in keeping the company in check) two decades ago, Google might not be that lucky this time around – and they still have another antitrust case to worry about.
Pokdepinion: Huge ramifications one way or another.
