Google slams reported forced Chrome sell-off, says “radical” move would harm businesses

US Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust officials will ask a judge to force a Google Chrome sell-off, Bloomberg has revealed.

According to people familiar with the plans, the DOJ will ask the judge to require measures related to AI and its Android smartphone operating system.

Antitrust officials also plan to recommend that federal judge Amit Mehta impose data licensing requirements, said sources, who asked not to be named per Bloomberg.

The news follows a judge ruling in August that Google’s search engine is in breach of antitrust regulations and that it exercises a monopoly over the rest of the search engine marketplace.

Enforcers want to make Google sell Chrome because it represents a key access point through which many users interact with Google’s search engine, sources said.

They added that the government may now choose whether to force a Chrome sale at a later date if other remediation methods create a more competitive market. DOJ officials reportedly pulled back from demanding Google sell Android, after assessing a potential Google services breakup.

Google’s response

Google has repeatedly rejected the DOJ’s claims and argued that proposed changes would have negative knock-on impacts on the tech market and consumers.

“The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, VP of regulatory affairs at Google, in a statement sent to ITPro.

“The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers, and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed,” she added.

Google Chrome accounts for the majority of the internet browser market, according to statistics from StatCounter. Chrome controls 66.68% of the market share compared to Safari’s 18.07% and Microsoft Edge’s 5.25%.

A forced sale of Chrome would be a major step forward in the US legal system’s continuing case against the tech giant.

The case centered on Google’s payments to rival browser makers to ensure its search engine was the top option, which saw the firm shell out $26 billion in 2021 to companies such as Apple and Samsung.

Judge Mehta ruled that Google exercises a monopoly in the search engine space which it achieved through ‘default distribution’. This refers to agreements with browser developers, mobile device makers, and mobile operators which ensured Google is made the default search engine.