U.S. DoJ Wants Google to Sell Chrome Browser

[MacRumors]

The United States Department of Justice wants Google to sell off its Chrome browser as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit, reports Bloomberg. Earlier this year, Google was found to have a search monopoly, and antitrust regulators have since been deciding on the actions that should be taken to address Google's anticompetitive practices.

The DoJ plans to ask the court to force Google to sell Chrome, which is the most popular web browser in the world by a wide margin. Chrome's integration with Google Search and other Google products has been cited as one of the factors limiting search competition.

Regulators also want Google to uncouple the Android operating system from other products like Google Search and the Google Play Store, both of which are apps installed on Android devices by default. It's not clear how unbundling Android from Google Play would work as Google Play is the Android app store. The DoJ initially wanted Google to sell off Android entirely, but has since backed off of that suggestion.

The DoJ will recommend that Google be required to license data and syndicate results from Google Search without restrictions. Bloomberg suggests that syndication would allow rival search engines and AI startups to improve their quality, while the data feed would let others build their own search indexes. Google could also be required to share more data with advertisers, with advertisers given more control over where their ads appear.

Google will be prevented from entering into exclusive deals such as the deal that it has with Apple to make Google the default Safari search engine. Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be the Safari default.

Google is appealing the antitrust ruling, while the judge overseeing the case plans to hold a two-week hearing in April 2025 to go over what changes Google has to make to address anticompetitive search behavior. From there, a final ruling is set to be issued in August 2025.

Article Link: U.S. DoJ Wants Google to Sell Chrome Browser

 

[sniffies]

Imagine gov ordering Apple to sell off its iPhone business

 

[grantishere]

Sell them to who? Amazon or Facebook?

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

...but they aren't even a monopoly in that category?

 

[iObama]

Holy ****in ****! That's a big deal.

 

[EightyEight]

Maybe TikTok will buy it?

 

[macduke]

I mean, everyone in the DOJ is about to be fired next year, so I highly doubt anything comes from this. We are moving back into a monopoly-favorable political environment.

Even so, it's kinda funny that they're making them sell of Chrome and wanted them to sell of Android, as the only reason Google made those products in the first place is so they could put their search in them to hold the monopoly for as long as possible. Google really only makes money off selling ads on search and mining our data.

 

[alexjholland]

This is the perfect advert for why we should fire 75% of government employees.

No one, anywhere on planet earth wants this.

 

[johnsc3]

APPL & MSFT should be eager to file an amicus brief in favor of GOOG. The other issues b/w the three can be worked out much later.

 

[Lizzard899]

As long as they dont get rid of chrome Im good

 

[Havalo]

Imagine gov ordering Apple to sell off its iPhone business

For the love of God, don’t give them more smart ideas!

 

[gleepskip]

Let Alphabet keep Chrome and Android. Prevent them selling user data.

 

[Tdude96]

Decouple the advertising machinery from all other products. Choose whether to sell off either the advertising or the search engine to a competitor.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I don't see how they have a monopoly as you can use different browsers and search engines. People use Chrome because they like it. I personally use FireFox or Safari. Hell, Microsoft went all in on Chrome because they found that Microsoft Edge was inferior to Chrome.

 

[dannyyankou]

This confuses me. I think the antitrust lawsuit is valid overall, but the issue isn’t really their browser. I would understand if they made Google sell off search capabilities that they original got by acquiring other companies though, that would make more sense.

 

[Shirasaki]

This is the perfect advert for why we should fire 75% of government employees.

No one, anywhere on planet earth wants this.

ok bud. Time for a much smaller government so they are even more powerless.

 

[mejsric]

Sell them to who? Amazon or Facebook?

sell to Elon

 

[titanium69]

GoOGlE sHoULd pULl oUt Of tHe USa

 

[rgeneral]

It won’t happen. They should have force MS to sell office long time ago but gave up.

 

[klasma]

...but they aren't even a monopoly in that category?

The coupling of Chrome with Google’s search and services (and Android devices) has adverse market effects, which is what counts.

 

[Porco]

Another battle where I wish that somehow all sides could lose.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Let Alphabet keep Chrome and Android. Prevent them selling user data.

They make money by selling user data from the folks that use those products. Remove the profit motive for them expending the time and effort into those, wouldn’t they just stop updating those?

 

[jz0309]

not understanding how this would address the "search monopoly", sure, more integrated with search ... well, the popcorn is heating up in the microwave to continue reading comments and watch what is going to happen in 2025 ...

 

[I7guy]

Looking at mid-2025 for a final action?

 

[Entilzha]

UK: “Apple, here’s a list of the idiotic changes we require and all the new hoops you need to jump through.”

US DOJ: “Hold my beer, imma have a chat with Google.”