After Google was found to have a monopoly over online search, the US Justice Department will next offer proposals to a judge on how to remedy the situation. New reports today detail how the DOJ might ask for a breakup of Google, specifically Android and/or Chrome.
According to Bloomberg and the New York Times, several options are being considered. The most extreme and “frequently discussed” is a breakup of Google, with the “most likely units for divestment [being] the Android operating system and Google’s web browser Chrome.” At issue is how they contribute to online search dominance by having Google Search as the default engine.
It’s not clear if the government would want both or just one product from the reporting today. Regardless, following the merger in April, that would be the Platforms & Devices division, which also includes hardware teams working on Pixel. The end result might be Android and/or Chrome being spun off into its own company.
Another divestiture candidate is Google Ads (AdWords text advertising in particular), or the government could ask for an “interoperability requirements that would make it work seamlessly on other search engines.”
Another option would require Google to divest or license its data to rivals, such as Microsoft’s Bing or DuckDuckGo.
Something less extreme, and likely, is a “ban on the type of exclusive contracts” that set the default search engine.
Looking ahead at future competition, the government “might seek to stop the company from forcing websites to allow their content to be used for some of Google’s AI products in order to appear in search results.”
These remedies are still being considered and nothing has been finalized. The government and Google, which plans to appeal, will be back in court this September.
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