U.S. DOJ renews push for Google to sell Chrome

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing to have Google sell off its web browser, Chrome.

In a court filing submitted on March 7, the DOJ reiterated demands that the court break Google up with a focus on making the search giant divest the Chrome browser. Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world, and its underlying technology powers many other browsers, including Microsoft’s Edge, Brave, Vivaldi and more.

The filing is the latest development in a long-running legal battle between the Justice Department and Google over its search monopoly. In August 2024, U.S. Judge Amit P. Mehta ruled that Google maintained a monopoly in online search. In the months since, the DOJ has submitted arguments to Mehta on how to address the Google search monopoly. Selling Chrome was one idea, and this latest filing doubles down on that.

If the DOJ did force Google to sell Chrome, it would have wide-ranging repercussions given the browser’s dominant position both among users and as the power behind many competing browsers.

Separately, the DOJ sued Google over its alleged monopoly in advertising tech, which is still awaiting a ruling. Canada’s Competition Bureau launched its own lawsuit against Google for anti-competitive conduct in digital ads last year.

One of the Justice Department’s main concerns with Chrome is how Google uses it to push people to its search product. Forcing Google to sell Chrome would “permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point,” the DOJ argued.

Selling Chrome isn’t the only change the DOJ wants. The filing also seeks to ban Google from paying companies to make its search engine the default option, claiming this practice allows Google to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.

Currently, Google pays Apple and Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, to make Google search the default option on their respective devices and software. Moreover, Google makes deals with Android smartphone manufacturers to use Chrome as the default browser and to feature Google search products.

The idea here seems to be that banning Google from paying for default status would open up competition for search engines to earn that place on merit. However, it could just open the field for another search engine operator with deep pockets — for example, Microsoft, which owns Bing — to buy its way into dominance.

DOJ changes course on AI, Android

While the DOJ pushes ahead on some ideas, it’s pulling back on other suggested solutions. In the March 7 filing, the Justice Department changed tact regarding Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Instead of attempting to stop Google from investing in AI, the DOJ now wants to Google to notify government officials before making investments in the tech.

Similarly, the DOJ pulled back on making Google divest of Android, a smartphone operating system (OS) that powers billions of devices worldwide. In the filing, the Justice Department argued that Google should have to make changes to its Android business practices, seemingly ending a push for Google to divest from the OS.

Google, unsurprisingly, opposes these measures and in its own filing to Mehta, it argued for a narrower approach. The search giant wants to be allowed to continue paying for default placement but with new rules about how restrictive the agreements can be.

The company has argued its search deals didn’t break the law and repeatedly claims that people choose Google search because it’s better than rival search engines. However, Google search has increasingly faced criticism for decreased quality, especially in recent months as Google integrated more AI features.

Source: New York Times, Android Authority