The US Department of Justice is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business to eliminate its online search monopoly.
In a filing late Tuesday, federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open up to competitors the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products.
“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little to no incentive to compete for users,” antitrust enforcers wrote in the filing. “To fully remedy this harm, it is necessary not only to end Google’s control over today’s distribution, but also to ensure that Google cannot control tomorrow’s distribution.”
To that end, the department said it is considering requesting structural changes to prevent Google from using products such as the Chrome browser, Android operating system, AI products or app store to benefit its search business. Prosecutors also appear to focus on Google’s standard search deals in the filing and said any proposed remedies would aim to limit or ban these deals.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in response to the filing that the Justice Department was “already flagging requests that go well beyond the specific legal issues” in this case. “Government dominance in a rapidly changing industry could have negative, unintended consequences for American innovation and American consumers.”
“The administration appears to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses and American competitiveness,” Mulholland said.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta reigned in August that Google’s search engine has illegally exploited its dominance to stifle competition and stifle innovation. He has outlined a timeline for a trial over the proposed solutions next spring and plans to make a decision by August 2025.
Google has already said it plans to appeal Mehta’s ruling, but the tech giant must wait until it finds a resolution before doing so. The appeals process could take as long as five years, predicts George Hay, a law professor at Cornell University and chief economist at the Justice Department’s antitrust division for most of the 1970s.
