Google Confronts Break-Up Threat From US DoJ

The government of the United States is considering asking a federal judge to break-up search engine giant Google – in a move that would fundamentally shake up the current tech landscape.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has begun proposing solutions to correct the company’s illegal behaviour and restore competition to the market for search engines, and revealed in a 32-page filing they are considering both “behavioural and structural remedies”.

After a ten week trial, a landmark ruling was made in August by Judge Amit Mehta, who stated “the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

Google break-up?

Judge Mehta found that Google had violated antitrust law by spending billions of dollars to create an illegal monopoly and become the world’s default search engine.

Soon after that historic ruling, reports suggested the United States was considering a rare antitrust option that could entail the corporate breakup of Alphabet’s Google.

Now the Associated Press reported that the US DoJ is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business in order to eliminate its online search monopoly.

This is according to the court filing on Tuesday, in which the federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products to competitors.

“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little-to-no incentive to compete for users,” the antitrust enforcers reportedly wrote in the filing. “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”

To that end, the department said it is considering asking for structural changes to stop Google from leveraging products such as its Chrome browser, Android operating system, AI products or app store to benefit its search business.

“Similarly, Plaintiffs are considering behavioural and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features – including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence – overrivals or new entrants,” the filing reads.

“Plaintiffs are considering behavioural and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features – including emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence – overrivals or new entrants. Such consideration is faithful to the Court’s findings.”

And the filing revealed that the US is also seeking action on Google’s default search agreements with companies such as Apple etc.

“As the Court recognised, Google’s long-standing control of the Chrome browser, with its preinstalled Google search default, ‘significantly narrows the available channels of distribution and thus disincentivises the emergence of new competition.’”

Google response

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, detailed Google’s response to the filing in a blog post.

“The US Department of Justice (DoJ) today shared a broad outline of radical changes it may demand as part of its lawsuit over how we distribute Search. This is the start of a long process and we will respond in detail to the DoJ’s ultimate proposals as we make our case in court next year. ”

“However, we are concerned the DoJ is already signaling requests that go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case,” said Mulholland.

“This case is about a set of search distribution contracts,” she added. “Rather than focus on that, the government seems to be pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products, with significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness.”

Google has already stated it plans to appeal Judge Mehta’s ruling.

“We believe that today’s blueprint goes well beyond the legal scope of the Court’s decision about Search distribution contracts,” Mulholland concluded. “Government overreach in a fast-moving industry may have negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America’s consumers. We look forward to making our arguments in court.”

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The DoJ is expected to submit a more detailed set of proposals by 20 November, and Google is expected to submit its own proposed remedies by 20 December.

Antitrust lawsuit

The DoJ had filed a civil antitrust suit against Google for monopolising search and search advertising back in 2020.

Google also faces another antitrust lawsuit, after the DoJ, along with a number of Attorneys Generals from US states filed a civil antitrust suit against Google for monopolising multiple digital advertising technology products in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act in January 2022.

The Google antitrust trial began on 12 September 2023 to November of last year and concluded with closing statements in May 2024.

It saw Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella testify that “everybody talks about the open web, but there is really the Google web.”

“Google is winning because it’s better,” Google lawyer John Schmidtlein said in closing statements earlier this year.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai had defended the huge amounts of money it pays to Apple and others to ensure that its search engine is the default search engine on their products.

Indeed it was reported that Google paid Apple $26 billion in 2021 to make its search engine default option.

In November 2023 Pichai confirmed that Google pays Apple 36 percent of Safari search revenue, under the terms of the default search agreement.