In the American antitrust case surrounding Google’s market power, the authorities are calling for a split. To end subsidiary Alphabet’s monopoly on online searches, plaintiffs from the US Department of Justice requested, among other things, the mandatory sale of the Chrome browser on Wednesday, according to court documents.
In addition, Google should be banned from re-entering the browser market for five years. In addition, Google is obliged to share search results and information with competitors for ten years.
Android sales are also planned
Another point is the cessation of billions in payments to Apple, which helped Google secure the status of the default search engine on Apple devices. The possible sale of the Android operating system is also on the table if the other measures to restore competition in Internet searches fail to take effect.
In August, a court declared that Google had an illegal monopoly on online searches and their advertising, which the company had defended with payments worth billions. Google plans to appeal the ruling. In any case, so-called recovery measures will be negotiated in a follow-up procedure in April 2025.
Google has repeatedly criticized a potential breakup as radical, saying it would hurt US businesses and consumers and jeopardize US competitiveness in artificial intelligence (AI). The company has until December to submit counter-proposals.
Receives the lion’s share of online advertising
Google has about 90 percent of the Internet search market. In addition, the majority of all smartphones run on the Android operating system. According to estimates, parent company Alphabet will thus capture the lion’s share of the global online advertising market worth $200 billion.
Source: Krone
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