US weighs breakup of Google in landmark online search case
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Google has said it plans to appeal, and that its search engine has won users through its quality.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Washington – The United States said on Oct 8 that it may ask a judge to force Alphabet’s Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it noted are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.
In a landmark case, a judge found in August that Google, which processes 90 per cent of US internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. The Justice Department’s proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how people find information online while shrinking Google’s revenues and giving its competitors more room to grow.
“Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow,” the Justice Department said.
The proposed fixes will also aim to keep Google’s past dominance from extending to the burgeoning business of artificial intelligence (AI), prosecutors said.
The filing represents Washington’s first push to dismantle a company for illegal monopolisation
Antitrust enforcers said Google gained scale and data benefits from its illegal distribution agreements with other tech companies that made its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers.
The Justice Department is also considering asking for an order that would require Google to make available to rivals the indexes, data and models it uses for Google search and AI-assisted search features.
It might also ask the court to end Google’s payments to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default on new devices.
Google has made annual payments – US$26.3 billion (S$34.3 billion) in 2021 – to companies including Apple and other device manufacturers to ensure that its search engine remained the default on smartphones and browsers, keeping its market share strong.
Google called the proposals “radical” and said they “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case”.
Google has said it plans to appeal, and that its search engine has won users with its quality. It added that it faces robust competition from Amazon and other sites where users go directly to search for goods or services and that users can choose other search engines as their default.
Some of the ideas in the breakup proposal previously garnered support from Google’s smaller competitors such as review site Yelp and rival search engine company DuckDuckGo.
Yelp, which sued Google over search in August, said spinning off Google’s Chrome browser and AI services should be on the table. Yelp also wants Google to be prohibited from giving preference to Google’s local business pages in search results.
The Justice Department is expected to file a more detailed proposal with the court by Nov 20. Google will have a chance to propose its own remedies by Dec 20.
US District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling in Washington was a major win for antitrust enforcers who have brought an ambitious set of cases against Big Tech companies over the past four years.
On Oct 7, a different federal judge ordered Google to open up its app store for the next three years to resolve a separate antitrust case brought by Epic Games
REUTERS, BLOOMBERG
