Should we dismantle Google? And, if so, how? The US government responded forcefully to this question on Wednesday, November 20. The Justice Department specifically recommends that the company be forced to sell its Google Chrome browser. Other proposals aimed at limiting Google, accused of having illegally maintained its dominance in online searches, also appear in its 23-page petition addressed to the District Court of Columbia. The ministry does not rule out a separation of Android, the mobile environment of Google, the leader in smartphones.
If confirmed by the courts, these measures would be an earthquake in the history of the giant with 307,000 million dollars (290,600 million euros) in turnover and 73,000 million dollars in net profit in 2023. Beyond that, they would represent the biggest blow hard. to a digital giant since the antitrust trial that, in the early 2000s, forced Microsoft to stop favoring its Explorer browser in its Windows environment.
The sale of Chrome, which represents 61% of the browser market in the United States, “will permanently end Google’s control over a crucial access point for online search and allow competing engines to be present in a browser used by so many people as their gateway to the Internet.” justifies the Department of Justice. According to the latter, if Google has more than 90% market share in online searches it is because “ill-gotten advantages” such as having installed its default engine in your Chrome browser. And from there it derives its power in online advertising, its main source of income.
Prohibition of favoring YouTube or Gemini
On Android, the ministry offers two “options” : There “more direct” is to force Google to get rid of it, but avoid “important objections” which the company would not fail to propose, the alternative is to prohibit it from promoting its services there, in particular its search engine, installing it as the only default engine.
In addition to these avenues to dismantle parts of the Google empire, the government recommends prohibiting it from entering into exclusive paid contracts to install its default engine on other platforms, such as Apple’s iPhones, against more than 20 billion dollars a year. According to the document, Google would also be prohibited from promoting its services such as the YouTube video platform, or its Gemini artificial intelligence assistant, on its engine. It should also sell, at a price “marginal cost”access your search engine’s website index, as well as its search results and data. The company should also allow site publishers to opt out of having their content used to train AI.
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