Google should be forced to sell the Chrome browser, the Ministry of Justice said

The request follows the government’s victory this year in an antitrust case against Google and is likely to kick off an intensified legal fight with far-reaching consequences for the tech giant’s core business.

Government lawyers have said competition can only be restored if Google separates its search engine from the products it has built to access the Internet, such as Chrome and its Android mobile operating system. According to Statcounter, Chrome controls about two-thirds of the global browser market. Chrome’s address bar searches through Google unless the user changes the settings.

The Justice Department also demanded that Google be prohibited from providing preferential access to its search engine on devices using the Android mobile operating system. If Google breaks this rule in the future, it will have to sell Android as well under the government’s proposal.

Android runs on billions of smartphones from manufacturers like Samsung, as well as Google’s Pixel devices.

Google will also be prohibited from paying to be the default search engine in any browser, including Chrome, under the new owner. Google currently pays Apple tens of billions of dollars a year to make its Safari browser installed as the default.

“The remedy should enable and encourage the development of an unfettered search ecosystem that stimulates market entry, competition, and innovation as rivals vie for the business of consumers and advertisers,” the department and more than two dozen government plaintiffs wrote.

The government proposal also addresses Google’s role in the fledgling artificial intelligence market, which is beginning to displace traditional search. The Justice Department wants the court to order Google to allow website publishers to opt out of using their data to train artificial intelligence models. Alternatively, the search giant could pay publishers to use their data.

In a statement this week, Google said forcing the spinoff of Android or Chrome “would harm consumers, developers and American technology leadership.” The company accused the Justice Department of using the case to advance its policies.

About half of U.S. Internet searches are conducted through products that Google has paid to use by default, including Android phones, Apple devices and browsers such as Firefox, according to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. Another 20% browse Chrome browsers, which users downloaded themselves and use Google search by default.

Advertising next to search results accounted for 57% of Google parent Alphabet’s $307 billion in revenue last year.

Mehta will oversee a trial that begins in April to decide how to deal with Google’s antitrust violations. The judge said he plans to make a decision by August. Google is expected to appeal his decision. This may delay the effect of the decision for months or years.

Radical proposal

Wednesday’s filing is the cornerstone of the Biden administration’s antitrust regulators’ legal efforts to break the dominance of Google, Apple and Amazon. Google was the first defendant to hit the courtroom, and the proposal to spin off Chrome shows how far the government will go to cut the size of the tech giants.

In a 25-year-old opinion, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned a lower court’s ruling breaking up Microsoft. They suggest that the remedy was appropriate only if the monopoly was created through mergers rather than through organic growth.

Although the Justice Department will have a new antitrust chief when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Republicans generally support antitrust action against the company. The department filed the lawsuit in 2020 while Trump was president.

Google’s policy of pre-installing its search engine on Android devices and making Chrome search the default has made it virtually impossible for competitors to get the users and data they need to improve their search engines and compete, Mehta ruled earlier this year.

Search engines typically improve based on the data they collect from searches conducted by users, in a cycle where success leads to higher quality, which leads to even more success.

Spinning off Chrome and Android would be the most effective way to ensure that other search engines have a chance to compete, said Fiona Scott Morton, a Yale University economist who worked at the Justice Department during the Obama administration. As long as Google controls them, she believes it will have a strong incentive to direct users to its own search engine.

The Justice Department and dozens of states that joined the lawsuit have been discussing possible legal remedies in recent days. They originally planned to ask for a Chrome spinoff only if Google couldn’t comply with restrictions on how it bundles search with its other products.

But on Wednesday, the plaintiffs decided to pursue the sale of Chrome regardless of any other conditions, people familiar with the matter said.

The importance of Chrome to Google

Android and Chrome have played a central role in Google’s success over the past two decades. Google CEO Sundar Pichai helped develop Chrome in 2008 and later oversaw Android after its creator Andy Rubin stepped down from his leadership role.

If Google were to sell Chrome, the new owner could choose the company as the default search engine, or users might have to choose a different option.

As the world’s most popular search engine, Google will likely continue to receive many requests through Chrome, Safari and other browsers if the Justice Department gets its way. But even a small loss could upend an industry in which rivals including Microsoft’s Bing and independent DuckDuckGo have single-digit market shares.

DuckDuckGo said searches through its Chrome search engine in Europe rose by about 75% after Google introduced a “selection screen” in the browser in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act.

Selling Chrome would also deprive Google of the user data that helps it deliver targeted ads. Google encourages users to sign in when using Chrome, making it easier for the company to track their online activity.

The Justice Department’s proposal would require Google to share its search data with competitors.

Write to Dave Michaels at [email protected] and Miles Kruppa at [email protected].