The Department of Justice (DOJ) said that Google must sell Chrome in order to end search monopoly. Competition needs to be restored, and this is the way to sort out the problem in DOJ’s eyes.
The DOJ filed a new proposal in which it says that Google must sell Chrome
The DOJ filed a new proposal in DC District Court, which refines earlier high-level outline of remedies. All of this follows Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling on Google’s search monopoly earlier this year.
This new filing contains a broad range of requirements that DOJ hopes the count will follow through on. The main request listed is the sale of the Chrome browser, which seems to be the key for the DOJ.
The government did not specifically ask for Google to divest its Android business
The DOJ did not request for Google to spin out its Android business. The door has been left open for that too, though. It was also said that Google might choose divestiture of Android itself if it doesn’t want to comply with some of the other rules that have been proposed (in relation to self-preferencing Google Search in Android).
The government is also asking the court to prohibit Google from offering money or anything of value to third parties to make Google’s search engine its default. As many of you know, Google pays a hefty yearly sum to Apple in order to keep Google Search default on its products.
It was also requested that Google made it possible to rivals to access its search index at “marginal cost, and on an ongoing basis”. Google will also be required to syndicate its search results, ranking signals, and US-originated query data for 10 years… should this proposal go through.
An AI-related request was also made
The government also wants Google to let websites opt out of its AI overviews without being penalized in search results.
Do note that this is still not a final proposal, however. The DOJ will file a revised version of this proposal in early March next year. Why then? Well, because the government and Google will go back to the DC District Court in April for a two-week remedies trial.
That’s basically the final stage of the trial. During it, Judge Mehta will need to determine the best way to restore competition in the markets.
2024-11-21 15:04:46