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The Department of Justice may push for Google (GOOGL+1.44%) to sell off its Chrome browser in an effort to break up the tech giant’s dominance of the search engine market.
Antitrust regulators are recommending a Chrome sale given that it’s the most widely used browser worldwide and a critical way that users access Google’s search engine, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. This follows an August ruling by a federal judge that found Google violated antitrust laws by monopolizing the online search engine market and pushing out competitors such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s (MSFT-0.04%) Bing.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs at Google, said in a statement that “the DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”
“The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed,” Mulholland said.
While pushing such a sale would be a major move by regulators, it is a scaling back of earlier options considered by the officials, including forcing Google to sell off its Android business, Bloomberg reports. In addition to a Chrome sale, the DOJ is also expected to request certain requirements of the tech giant’s artificial intelligence and Android smartphone operating system, as well as to impose data licensing requirements, according to Bloomberg.
Through Chrome, Google is also able to direct users toward its other products and tools, including its own AI chatbot, Gemini.
To address Google’s monopoly in the search engine market, the Justice Department said in a court filing last month that it’s looking for remedies that would prevent and restrain any present and future maintenance of its dominance.
Actions being considered included “behavioral 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.”
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were down 0.35% in pre-market trading Tuesday.
Analysts at Jefferies said in a research note last month that another “very likely” outcome could be that the Justice Department will opt to ban Google from paying Apple to be the exclusive search engine on iPhones. Judge Amit Mehta said in his August decision that Google’s exclusive agreements with companies like Apple allowed it to hike prices for advertisers without any blowback.