Earlier this year, the U.S. District Court in Columbia did just that ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on the search engine market. That ruling prompted the Department of Justice (DOJ) to draft several proposals to help change Google’s illegal monopoly status.
The latest DOJ proposal includes divesting Google’s Chrome browser, which the DOJ sees as a “major entry point for web search.” The US government is also prepared to force Google to divest Android in a similar manner. The DOJ also wants to ban Google from offering payments to third parties that would secure Google Search as the default search engine on their devices or software platforms.
Other so-called remedies include banning Google from favoring its search engine on its own apps and platforms and allowing competing search engine companies to access its search index at a “marginal cost.”
As you may have guessed, Google is prepared to appeal the DOJ proposals and confirmed its plans within a week blog postdescribing the DOJ’s proposals as “extreme” and with the “potential to harm consumers and America’s global technology leadership.”
A second hearing, which will include a two-week trial on remedies, is scheduled for April 2025. The DOJ will also prepare a revised version of its proposal in early March.