Justice Department Says Google Must Sell Chrome to Break Its Search Monopoly

The Justice Department says Google must ditch its Chrome web browser to restore competition in the online search market, leaving open the possibility of requiring the company to make Android as well.

The suit includes a wide range of demands that the Justice Department hopes Google will face, from restricting the company from entering into certain types of agreements to breaking up the company more broadly. The Justice Department’s latest proposal doubles down on its request to expand the Google Chrome browser, which the government views as a key access point for Internet searches.

While the government has no plans to require Google to expand its Android business, it is leaving the option open. The possibility of a spin-off of Android could hang over Google’s head, incentivizing it not to bypass other legal remedies, but the government says a spin-off could also be mandatory if those other solutions prove ineffective at restoring competition in the market. The Justice Department says Google could even choose to sell assets if the company doesn’t want to comply with some of the other rules the government is proposing against Google’s self-preferred search on Android.

Other remedies the government is asking the court to impose include stopping Google from offering money or anything of value to third parties, including Apple and other phone makers, to make Google’s search engine the default or dissuade them from hosting rival search engines. He also wants to ban Google from favoring its search engine on any platform owned and operated (such as YouTube or Gemini), force it to give competitors access to its search index at a “cap cost and on an ongoing basis,” and require Google to aggregate search results , ranking signals and query data from the US for 10 years. The Justice Department is also asking Google to allow websites to opt out of artificial intelligence reviews without being penalized in search results.

The Justice Department will file a revised version of its proposals in early March before the government and Google return to D.C. District Court in April for a two-week trial on remedies. This is the second stage of the trial, and Mehta now faces the challenge of determining the best way to restore competition in the markets.

The trial of the remedies will be overseen by the new administration, which will oversee the Justice Department, which could influence the decisions it ultimately pursues. But the case was originally brought during the first Trump administration, suggesting Google won’t be completely left out.

Google and the Justice Department are scheduled to present closing arguments in a separate antitrust case unfolding Monday in Alexandria, Virginia, involving an ad-tech business.