Image: Michael Crider/Foundry
Back in August a U.S. federal court found Google guilty of violating anti-trust laws, and the fallout could be the biggest antitrust action since the breakup of AT&T/Bell way back in the 1980s. But exactly what the enforcement action will look like is still very much in the air. Recent reports indicate that the U.S. Department of Justice is going to suggest that Google be forced to sell the Chrome browser.
That’s according to Bloomberg, which has been rock-solid on this case for years. Previously the DoJ was said to be considering some kind of breakup of Google’s big three corporate assets: Search, Chrome, and Android. Some or all of them were on the table, but the DoJ has apparently settled on Chrome as the piece of the monopoly puzzle that has to go.
The federal team will also suggest that Google be forced to refrain from making the kind of exclusivity contracts that have become a staple of its OEM partnerships for Android and Chrome devices, according to the report. The DoJ also wants Google to give websites more tools to effectively opt-out of being used in the company’s extensive data scraping for AI training.
Note that this doesn’t mean it’s a done deal. Assuming that Bloomberg is accurate, that means that DoJ attorneys will suggest Google be forced to divest itself of Chrome to District Judge Amit P. Mehta. The judge will have fairly broad authority on whether to proceed with that action, or suggest some other way of enacting the ruling that Google is operating an illegal monopoly.
Whatever happens, Google’s legal team will inevitably appeal for a lighter punishment, if not throwing out the ruling entirely. A Google vice president accused the Department of Justice of “push[ing] a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”
Google’s appeal is a surprise to no one. But if you’ll follow me along on a little tech pundit speculation, it’s not hard to guess what the company is hoping for on the other end. With Trump’s election win and a second presidential term looming in less than two months, Google is hoping that the wheels of justice will turn slowly enough for a new administration with total control of the federal government to take power. Given the pace of the case thus far — the antitrust case began just over four years ago — that seems like a safe bet.
With Republicans in general and Trump in particular, a stripping of federal power to regulate and prosecute corporations is a given. So the obvious hope is that a second Trump DoJ would essentially forget about any kind of corporate oversight. Given Trump’s history of legal issues with real estate and dozens of other businesses, not to mention his early pick of Florida libertarian congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general, Google might be hoping to get out of this with less than a slap on the wrist.
But there’s another wrinkle to this particular story. While American conservatives generally position themselves as anti-regulation at every opportunity, there are a few notable exceptions, and one of them is tech and social media. Republicans have long accused any and all technology companies of enabling bias against them. And Trump is no exception — indeed, he’s the ur-example for the current climate.
“Google’s got a lot of power. They’re very bad to me. Very, very bad to me,” said Trump in an October interview, echoing previous statements against the search company. “…I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google.” I think it’s a whole rigged deal. I think Google’s rigged just like our government’s rigged all over the place.” JD Vance, the vice president-elect, has said that Google should be broken up entirely, calling it “one of the most dangerous companies in the world.”
So Google is in the sights of the current Department of Justice for abusing monopoly power, and it’s being targeted by the incoming administration for perceived slights against specific individuals. Predicting Trump’s mood at any given moment is a fool’s errand, to say nothing of his actions. But however the case shakes out, Google is between a rock and a hard place.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he’s the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop “battlestation” in his off hours. Michael’s previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he’s covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he’s always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.
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