U.S. government considers breaking up Google in landmark antitrust case
The U.S. government is considering breaking up Google, marking the first time a major monopoly of this scale has been targeted since the breakup of AT&T, a telephone services company, several decades ago, reports a Kazinform News Agency correspondent, citing CNN.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in a court filing Tuesday night said it may recommend dismantling Google’s core businesses, separating Google’s search business from Android, Chrome and the Google Play app store.
“That would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products,” the DOJ said in its court filing.
The Justice Department’s recommendation comes after a federal judge ruled in August that Google had violated U.S. antitrust law with its search business. The ruling, in which the judge called Google a “monopolist”, set the stage for changes to Google’s oldest and most important business and for how millions of Americans get information online.
Google called the government’s potential move “radical” and warned it could harm user experience, stating that it could “break” Android and Chrome, hurt AI innovation, and risk user privacy.
“This case is about a set of search distribution contracts,” Google said. “Rather than focus on that, the government seems to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness.”
Shares of Google (GOOG) dipped 1.9% in the opening minutes of trading on Wednesday, following the news.
The U.S. government argued in the case that Google had used multiple interlocking tactics and products under its control to shut out competitors in search, leaving consumers with few choices and a less innovative market for search engines.
The case centers on Google’s exclusive contracts with companies like Apple, making Google the default search provider. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that those deals were anticompetitive. The next phase of the trial will determine the penalties Google will face, although the company plans to appeal.
The DOJ may ask for a ban on Google’s exclusivity deals, potentially ending the agreement with Apple. It might also require devices to offer users a choice of search engines upfront, a practice already seen in the European Union.
The U.S. government may also seek to prevent Google from promoting its search engine in other products it owns. For example, it could call for a rule barring Chrome from routing searches through Google by default. This type of behavior, known as self-preferencing, has increasingly come under scrutiny by U.S. policymakers and competition enforcers.
The DOJ is also looking at how Google’s dominance in search could impact artificial intelligence. The government said it is weighing a proposed penalty for Google that would let websites opt out of having their content collected for Google’s AI training purposes or appearing in AI-generated summaries of search results.
“Google’s ability to leverage its monopoly power to feed artificial intelligence features is an emerging barrier to competition and risks further entrenching Google’s dominance,” the filing said.
The case had been described as the biggest tech antitrust case since the U.S. government’s antitrust showdown with Microsoft at the turn of the millennium. If the government succeeds, it could impact other tech giants facing similar antitrust challenges, including Amazon, Apple, and Meta.