The United States Department of Justice is analyzing the possibility of asking the courts for various measures aimed at ending the monopolistic position that Google occupies in the online search engine market. Among them, we can find a division of the company and the possible sale of some of its activitieslike your Chrome browser or Android operating system.
The proposal from Joe Biden’s government comes after a federal court ruled last August that the Mountain View (California)-based giant was violating antitrust laws because of its dominant position in the business sector. online search engines, where it controls around 90% of the market.
NOW, The Justice Department sent Justice Amit P. Mehta a 32-page document confirming that it is considering possible solutions to deal with the consequences of Google’s monopolistic position in areas such as search market allocation and revenue sharing, search results, monetization of advertising and the accumulation and use of data.
“To fully remedy this damage, we must not only end the control that Google exercises today over distribution, but also ensure that Google cannot control tomorrow’s distribution“, declares the American government.
Thus, he predicts that the remedies necessary to prevent and limit Google’s monopolistic position These could include contractual requirements and prohibitions, product non-discrimination measures, data and interoperability conditions and structural measures.
Image from Google search engine.
Free Android
For example, the Ministry of Justice specifies that could ask “remedies behavioral and structural which prevent Alphabet from using products such as Chrome, Play or Android to favor Google’s search service and related products and features over the services of other competitors or new entrants.
The document published Tuesday evening is a preliminary version of the recommendations that the Department of Justice will send to the judge in November. Although the text does not detail what these structural measures will consist of, analysts believe that they could refer to a split of the company and the sale of certain activities.
Google response
After reading this document, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, published an article on its blog in which it attacks the proposals made by the US government and warns that the possible measures proposed “will affect many industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness“.
For example, it guarantees that Separating Chrome and Android would destroy these services “and many other things.” For the technology giant, such a forced separation “would change its business model, increase the cost of devices and harm Android and Google Play in their competition with the iPhone and the App Store”, the application store of Apple.
Concerning a possible exchange of data such as search queries, results or clicks with other Internet players, the Californian company argues that this measure “would present a risk for data protection and security. Additionally, he adds, it could reduce the incentive for these other companies to innovate when developing their search engines.
Likewise, he also warns that hindering Google’s artificial intelligence tools “could slow American innovation at a critical time”. Another consequence he said would bring change to the online advertising market would be that it would be “less valuable to publishers and marketers, and less useful to consumers.”
Monopoly
The Joe Biden administration’s proposal comes after Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled last August that Google violates antitrust laws due to its dominant position in the online search engine industry.
“After carefully considering and evaluating the testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist and has acted as such to maintain its monopoly“, the judge said emphatically.
The court agree with the US Department of Justicewhich accused Google of using its dominant position in the search engine market to erect barriers to other companies and generate a kind of vicious circle in its favor. Google, for its part, defended itself by arguing that a few mouse clicks are enough to use an alternative search engine.
During the trial held in the fall of 2023, it was confirmed that Alphabet spent tens of billions of dollars on exclusive contracts to secure a dominant position as the world’s default search provider on smartphones and web browsers. A good portion of that amount went to Apple.
