Google faces government push to sell Chrome and share data

The US Department of Justice is petitioning the court to mandate that Google sell the Chrome browser and share data and search results with competitors. According to The Guardian, these actions undermine Google's dominance in the internet search market.

Prosecutors argue that these measures will subject Google to strict regulation for 10 years, involving oversight by the same federal court in Washington that determined the company holds an illegal monopoly in online search and advertising. Google controls about 90% of the internet search market.

"The Guardian" reports that the US Department of Justice also demands that Google be barred from re-entering the browser market for five years and potentially sell the Android operating system if other efforts fail to restore competition. The Department also seeks to prevent Google from investing in competing search engines, AI query-based products, and advertising technologies.

Google is expected to present its proposals in December, with a trial scheduled for April.

A US court ruled that Google holds an illegal search monopoly. The tech giant has spent billions over the years to become the default internet search engine, but the court ruled that this violated antitrust laws.

"Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," stated Judge Amit Mehta from Washington. Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% of smartphones. Mehta noted that in 2021, Google spent over $26 billion to secure its dominant share of the internet browser market.

In September, the European Court of Justice upheld a fine of 2.4 billion euros (approximately $2.6 billion) imposed on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its product comparison service.

In June 2017, the European Commission determined that in the European market, Google favored the results of its product comparison service on its general search results page over those of competing online comparison sites.

Google presented the search results of its product comparison service prominently and highlighted them in "boxes" with eye-catching visual and text information. In contrast, search results from competing comparison sites appeared only as ordinary general results, visible as blue links.