US Department of Justice Requests Court to Order Forced Sale of Google Chrome

The U.S. Department of Justice has requested a court order for the forced sale of the web browser Chrome as a remedy to break up Google's monopoly in the search market.

AFP Yonhap News

According to the daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and others, on the 20th (local time), the Department of Justice submitted this remedy to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where Google's antitrust lawsuit is ongoing. This follows the federal court's first-instance ruling last August that Google violated antitrust laws in the search market. At that time, the federal court had required the plaintiffs, including the Department of Justice, to submit proposals to resolve Google's monopoly by that day.

The Department of Justice expects that selling Chrome will restore competition in the search market. According to the website StatCounter, Chrome controls about two-thirds of the global search market. Unless users change their settings, searches from the Chrome address bar are conducted through Google.

Additionally, the Department of Justice requested restrictions preventing Google from prioritizing its own search engine on devices using the Android mobile operating system. The Department's position is that if this rule is violated, Android must also be sold. Furthermore, it has been proposed to prohibit payments made to companies like Apple to be set as the default search engine in browsers. Currently, Google pays Apple (Safari) billions of dollars annually.

The Department of Justice's remedy also includes provisions related to generative artificial intelligence (AI), which has begun to replace the traditional search market. The Department requested that Google allow website publishers to refuse the use of their data for AI model training or, alternatively, pay for the use of such data. In addition, Google is required to provide its search data free of charge to competitors for 10 years.

As a result, attention is focused on Google. Google plans to submit its own antitrust remedy proposal to the court by the 20th of next month. Earlier, Google expressed concerns in a statement that the forced sale of Android or Google would "harm consumers, developers, and U.S. technological leadership."

Subsequently, the court will review the remedies from both sides and is expected to issue a ruling by August next year. WSJ predicted that Google will appeal the ruling, which could prolong the litigation for months or even years.

This is part of the Biden administration's ongoing antitrust regulatory efforts to limit the market dominance of major tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. However, since the case was first brought by the Department of Justice and several state governments during the Donald Trump administration in 2020, WSJ assessed that this trend could continue even after the inauguration of a second Trump administration next year. WSJ reported, "The Republican Party has generally supported antitrust actions against this company," adding, "This will be a blow to Google."