WashingtonThe US Justice Department is preparing a petition to force parent Google to sell its Chrome browser to end its monopoly over the internet search market. Last August, the American justice already determined that the company had an illegal monopoly on this sector and now it was pending to see what measures would be implemented to correct the situation. Among these measures, sell Chrome.
The request is one of the most aggressive attempts by the Joe Biden administration to limit what it sees as monopolies by big tech.
Since its launch in 2008, Chrome has become the most used browser in the world and controls more than 61% of the US market, according to StatCounter. The company is estimated to occupy two-thirds of the global search engine market.
Beyond being one of the most used browsers, Chrome is a key piece within the Google ecosystem, as it uses information from the searches made by its users to collect massive data about their tastes and interests, which then transfer to their advertising machine. Recently, the data that Google collects through Chrome has also been used for its artificial intelligence projects.
The structure that Google has set up through Chrome is what the prosecutors point out as a monopolistic practice and which entails almost insurmountable difficulties for some of its rivals. For Google, selling Chrome would mean a significant loss, since due to the large market share of the browser it has become one of the main sources of income for the company.
Beyond forcing the sale of Chrome, the report filed by the US Department of Justice also asks the judge to impose measures related to artificial intelligence and the Android smartphone operating system. The company plans to appeal when the judge in charge of the case, Amit Mehta, issues a final ruling, according to Reuters. It would probably arrive in the month of August 2025.
Unfair competition
Apart from having put on the table the possibility of selling Chrome, other actions are also being discussed such as separating the Android mobile operating system from other services such as Google Play and the search engine. One of the other measures being discussed is to restrict how Google uses YouTube and search data to train its artificial intelligence. Everything would be done with the aim of opening up space for new companies to compete within the sector. The US government may also choose to wait to observe the implementation of some of these other measures before finally deciding whether Google should sell Chrome or not, according to the Bloomberg agency.
Despite the fact that the Biden administration is now taking very aggressive measures against the technology company, the evolution of the judicial battle will be under the new presidency of Donald Trump. During the campaign, Trump claimed he would go after Google for what he perceives as bias against him. Soon after, he was reluctant to break up the company.
Last Sunday, Trump appointed Brendan Carr, a Republican highly critical of big tech companies, as the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the independent agency that regulates radio, television and wireless telecommunications. On repeated occasions, Carr has promised to wage war on the “censorship cartel” which he says consists of Apple, Meta (Facebook), Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft, which he also accuses of silencing conservative voices.
Source: www.ara.cat
