US Justice Department calls for forced sale of Chrome

In the US antitrust case surrounding Google’s market power, the authorities are pushing for a breakup.

To the monopoly of the Alphabet subsidiary The plaintiff US Department of Justice requested on Wednesday, among other things, to stop Internet searches Forced sale the world’s most used browser, Chrome, according to court documents. In addition, Google should be banned from re-entering the browser market for five years.

In addition, Google should be obliged to share search results and information with competitors for ten years. Another point is the setting billions in payments to Apple, which secured Google’s status as the default search engine on Apple devices. Also the possible sale of the Android operating system is therefore in the room if the other measures to restore competition in Internet searches do not take effect.

Skepticism about Trump

However, it remains unclear how the process will continue. Because the judge won’t make a decision until next summer. Until then will Donald Trump He will be US President and will be sworn in on January 20th. And his government’s course in the process could be completely different. In an interview during the election campaign, Trump expressed skepticism about one Breaking up Google expressed. That would help China, he argued. Instead, Trump said he wanted more fairness in search results.

Illegal monopoly

In August, a court certified that Google had an illegal monopoly in online searches and the associated advertising, which the company defended with payments worth billions. Google wants appeal against the verdict insert. Regardless of this, so-called remedial measures are to be negotiated in a follow-up procedure in April 2025. Google has repeatedly criticized a possible break-up as radical, saying it would harm US companies and consumers and endanger the US’s competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). The company has until December to submit counter-proposals.