- The US Department of Justice and some states have filed a lawsuit demanding the sale of Google’s Chrome to end the monopoly
- Google said the proposals are radical as they will hurt users and harm America’s global technology leadership
- The case was first filed in 2020 in the first administration of Donald Trump
The United States (US) Department of Justice (DOJ) and a group of US states have filed a lawsuit demanding that Google sells Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser.
The lawsuit is one of a series of remedies proposed by the DOJ aimed at stopping Google from maintaining its monopoly in online search.
In a 23-paged court filing on Wednesday, November 20, the DOJ requested the US District Court to force Google to refrain from entering into contracts with companies, including Apple and Samsung, that make Chrome the default on many smartphones and browsers.
The request comes three months after a ruling in August by Judge Amit Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia that found Google had illegally maintained a monopoly and crushed its competition in online search.
The DOJ stated that its demands would help break Google’s monopoly on online search and open the market to others like Bing and DuckDuckGo.
The government lawyers said, “Restoring competition to the markets for general search and search text advertising as they exist today will require reactivating the competitive process that Google has long stifled.”
DOJ’s other requests
The DOJ is also requesting Judge Mehta to give Google the choice to either sell Android, its smartphone operating system or bar Google from making its services mandatory on phones that use Android to operate.
It also wants the court to ask Google to allow rival search engines to display the company’s results and access its data for a decade, as well as prevent Google from reentering the browser market for five years after the sale of Chrome.
The DOJ’s requests, if granted by Judge Mehta will rub off on a string of other antitrust cases that challenge the dominance of tech giants, including Apple, Amazon and Meta.
Google responds
Google said the DOJ’s proposals are rather radical and would break a range of Google products critical to users around the world as well as harm America’s global technology leadership.
Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs, said the DOJ “chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership
“DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products – even beyond search – that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.”
Google is expected to counter with its own proposed remedies by 20 December 20, while Judge Mehta will issue a decision by the summer of 2025.
Google’s wide reach
Google’s Chrome, which was introduced in 2008, is free-to-use and accounts for about 90 per cent of all online searches globally and 67 per cent of the global browser market, according to the Statcounter web traffic analysis platform.
On the other hand, Google’s Android is the world’s most popular mobile software and has an estimated 71 per cent of the market.
The Android software is open-source, so Samsung and other phone manufacturers do not have to pay Google for its use.
Also, most Android devices come with Google’s apps already installed, which, according to the US government’s attorneys, allows it to funnel users to its search engine, further exerting its huge tech dominance.
A long legal battle
The DOJ first sought to break up Microsoft into two in an antitrust case filed in 2000, which was overturned by the appeals court after Microsoft appealed the case a year later, forcing the DOJ to eventually drop the case.
The latest antitrust case by the DOJ against Google was filed in the closing months of the first administration of Donald Trump in 2020 and has continued under President Joe Biden.
With Trump set to return to the White House on January 20, 2025, there are concerns about whether his new administration would continue with the case or adopt a different approach.
Crackdown on big tech?
In recent years, US regulators have been on the neck of big tech companies, including Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta.
The DOJ sued Google over its dominance in advertising technology. It also sued Apple for making it difficult for consumers to leave its tightly knit universe of devices and software.
Also, the Federal Trade Commission separately sued Amazon and Meta for anticompetitive behaviour and stifling rivals.
Again, during his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump also threatened to sue Google, while Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz called for the breaking up of firms.
Nigeria gets Google’s N2.8bn AI development grant to support innovation
Meanwhile, TheRadar reported that Nigeria secured a N2.8 billion Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) development grant to support the country’s advancement in AI and the digital economy.
According to the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, the grant initiative aims to equip Nigerians with advanced AI skills that will enable them to thrive in the global economy.
