US DOJ Considers Splitting Google Historic Decision and Potential Remedies
TapTechNews August 14th news, the US Department of Justice is considering a historic decision: to split Google's business empire. Previously, a federal judge ruled that this tech giant has an illegal monopoly position in the online search field.
According to Bloomberg, DOJ lawyers may ask Judge Amit Mehta to order Google to sell some of its businesses, among which the assets that may be divested include the Android operating system, Chrome browser, and advertising platform AdWords. Sources said that the possibility of selling the world's most widely used operating system Android has sparked the most intense discussions among DOJ lawyers.
In addition to splitting, the DOJ is also considering other milder options, such as requiring Google to share data with competing search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft's Bing. In addition, they may also seek to impose restrictions on Google's artificial intelligence products to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage. For example, the DOJ may ask Mehta to prohibit Google from requiring companies to allow it to scrape content in exchange for appearing in search results.
Last week, Judge Mehta made a landmark ruling, finding that Google is a monopoly enterprise by paying billions of dollars to partners such as Apple, Samsung, and AT&T to ensure that its search engine becomes the default search engine on most smartphones. The judge ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act and has a monopoly position in the general search service and general text advertising market.
It is expected that the US Department of Justice will ask Judge Mehta to prohibit Google from providing default search engine agreements in the future.
Google's stock price fell by more than 1% after Tuesday's trading. If the proposal to split Google is really proposed, it will be the first such proposal by the US federal government in more than 20 years. The US Department of Justice won the antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft but gave up the plan to split the company in 2001.
The US Department of Justice will outline its proposed remedies in the second round of antitrust trials starting in September.
Google has said it plans to appeal Mehta's ruling. Kent Walker, the company's president of global affairs, said in a statement last week: This decision recognizes that Google provides the best search engine, but thinks we shouldn't provide it easily.