The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is asking a federal judge for a ruling to determine whether Google must sell its web browser Chrome, Bloomberg reports.
In August, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google has a monopoly on online searches. The DOJ has since been considering how to break the data giants’ stranglehold on the Internet. Wednesday, November 20th, is the deadline to submit proposals to the judge. The DOJ has not commented on the situation.
Chrome is the most used browser in the world and has a global market share of 64.61% of web traffic, according to Similarweb. At the same time, the Google search engine controls about 90% of the global market share in its niche. Additionally, Google is the default engine in Chrome as well as on many smartphone browsers, including iPhones.
Judge Mehta noted in his ruling in August that the default search engine arrangement was “extremely valuable real estate” for Google and that it is extremely unlikely normal competition could break up the monopoly.
“Even if a new entrant were positioned from a quality standpoint to bid for the default when an agreement expires, such a firm could compete only if it were prepared to pay partners upwards of billions of dollars in revenue share,” he wrote.
Google has made its opposition clear and accused the judge of judicial activism.
“The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” Google executive Lee-Anne Mulholland told Business Insider in a statement.
Bloomberg also reported Google will be asked to establish new measures regarding its artificial intelligence tools, Android operating system, and use of consumer data.
“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,” Mulholland added.
The request is not unexpected as the DOJ said in an October filing of initial proposals that it was considering a breakup of Google and measures “that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play [its app store], and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products.”.
Google denies operating a monopoly in online search. Its response to the DOJ’s filing in October said separating Chrome, Android, or other parts of Google’s suite of technologies from the whole would “break them”.
“Breaking them off would change their business models, raise the cost of devices, and undermine Android and Google Play in their robust competition with Apple’s iPhone and App Store,” the company said.
It also said it would make Chrome less secure.
