U.S. Justice Department officials plan to ask a judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser to dismantle its monopoly over the Internet search market, in a major intervention against one of the largest technology companies in the world. world.
Last month, the Department of Justice (DoJ) filed court papers saying it was considering applying “structural remedies” to prevent Google from using some of its products.
The Justice Department will reportedly push for Alphabet-owned Google to sell the browser and will also ask a judge to require new measures related to artificial intelligence as well as its Android smartphone operating system, according to Bloomberg.
Competition officials, along with several U.S. states that have joined the case against the Silicon Valley company, also plan to recommend that federal Judge Amit Mehta impose data licensing requirements.
Google has said it will challenge any case brought by the Justice Department and said the proposals marked an “overreach” by the government that would harm consumers.
If Mehta accepts the proposals, they could dramatically reshape the global online search market, of which Google controls 90%, as well as the company’s role in the rapidly growing AI sector.
In the UK, the competition watchdog dropped an investigation into Google’s partnership with Anthropic, the US company that makes the Claude series of AI models.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided that the agreement, which involved a $2 billion investment by Google, did not amount to it acquiring material control of Anthropic. The investigation was launched amid concerns about the concentration of AI power in big tech companies.
The action against Google in the United States follows an August court ruling in favor of the Justice Department that found the company had violated antitrust laws and spent billions building an illegal monopoly.
The Justice Department’s filing last month said Google’s conduct had resulted in “pernicious harm” to users, and that the importance of restoring competition to a market that was “indispensable” could not be overstated.
The case against Google was brought under Donald Trump’s first administration and continued under Joe Biden’s.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said the Justice Department continues to push a “radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”
“The government putting its thumb on the scale in this way would harm consumers, developers, and American technology leadership precisely at a time when it is needed most.”
The case has echoes of the US government’s attempt to break up Microsoft in the 1990s in an effort to challenge its dominance over the software market.
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In 2000, a judge ruled in favor of the Justice Department and said the company would have to split in two, but Microsoft successfully appealed a year later and the Justice Department eventually dropped the case.
Google will submit its proposed solutions in response to the Department of Justice by December 20.
In examining Google’s association with Anthropic, the CMA said it had found that Google had not acquired the ability to materially influence Anthropic’s commercial policy and therefore the association did not meet the threshold for control to apply. of UK mergers.
Joel Bamford, executive director of mergers at the CMA, said: “This is another decision by the CMA that provides greater clarity for companies and their investors.
“We know that fair, open and effective competition opens up investment opportunities and supports innovation in important markets like these, and it is through merger reviews that we can properly assess the nature and impact of complex partnerships like the one between Google and Anthropic”.
The watchdog also said its so-called turnover test was not met, as Anthropic UK’s turnover does not exceed £70m.
Anthropic said last month that its Claude AI model can now perform computing tasks including filling out forms, planning an outing and creating a website.