The tech giant has repeatedly been criticized for practices that cheat when they don’t eliminate competition
The outgoing US administration of Democratic President Joe Biden yesterday demanded from the court on Wednesday to order the company Google to be separated from its web browsing program, the Chromea measure that would be historic for the tech giant, which has been repeatedly criticized for practices that distort when they do not eliminate competition.
Although the intentions of the incoming administration under Donald Trump on the matter are far from clear so far, the outgoing administration’s request reflects a striking change in the attitude of the American authorities responsible for the protection of competition, which in essence had decided to leave the American tech giants alone, after the failed attempt to split the Microsoftabout twenty years ago.
In a court filing, the Justice Department wants the Alphabet subsidiary’s operations to be separated and also to bar Google from signing agreements with manufacturers to force them to set its own search engine as the default on smartphones.
US authorities still want to prevent Google from continuing to exploit its Android mobile software to promote its other products. They even want the company to be separated from Android, if it doesn’t propose changes to solve the problem that satisfy them.
In the summer of 2023, Google was found guilty of illegal practices intended to create and maintain its monopoly on internet searches by Amit Mehta, a federal judge in Washington.
The next stage is to announce the company’s penalty and how its dominance problem will be resolved.
After receiving the authorities’ formal request on Wednesday, the judge will now await Google’s motions next month before hearing arguments from both sides at a special hearing scheduled for April.
However, these changes, if indeed decided, it will probably take years to materialize. Google has also warned that it will appeal and calls the idea of being cut into pieces “radical”.
The case is likely to end up in the hands of the Supreme Court, depending on how he decides to proceed after Donald Trump takes office on January 20. The Republican tycoon will name a new antitrust team, but so far he seems to be alternating between hot and cold about his intentions toward the tech giants.
He named the next head of the FCC, Brendan Carr, who says he wants to “break up the censorship cartel” which, according to him, are imposed by large companies such as Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.
But the president-elect has also said that breaking up large companies would be too much.
The Justice Department wants Google to split from Chrome, the world’s most widely used web browser, because it is both a major access point to its search engine and thus undercuts potential competitors.
According to the StatCounter website, Google had a 90% market share of internet searches in September — its percentage rises to 94% when it comes to smartphones.
During the ten-week trial of the case, it was revealed that huge sums of money were being paid by Alphabet to ensure that Google’s search engine was installed as the default especially on mobile phones made by Apple and Samsung.
The prosecutions had begun during the first term of Donald Trump (2017-2021) and continued during the days of his successor Joe Biden.
If the judge goes ahead with what the authorities are asking, it could completely reshape the internet search market.
Google is facing a broader legal assault for alleged violations of antitrust laws in both the US and the EU.
In October, a federal judge in California ordered Google to allow other app stores to compete with the Google Play Store, ruling in favor of online game maker Epic Games.
