Justice Department considering push for landmark Google breakup after historic antitrust ruling: report

The Justice Department is reportedly considering a push for a historic breakup of Google’s business empire, after a federal judge ruled that the Big Tech giant has an illegal monopoly over Internet search.

DOJ lawyers may ask Judge Amit Mehta to order Google to sell off parts of its business — with potential candidates for investment including its Android operating system, Chrome web browser and advertising platform AdWords, Bloomberg reported.

A potential sale of Android — the world’s most widely used operating system — has generated the most discussion among DOJ lawyers drafting the agency’s plan, the newspaper said, citing sources with knowledge of the agency’s discussions.

The feds are also weighing “less onerous” options, such as requiring Google to share data with rival search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Microsoft’s Bing.

They may also seek to place limits on Google’s artificial intelligence products to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage. For example, the DOJ could ask Mehta to block Google from asking companies to allow it to “scrape” their content in exchange for appearing in search results.

In a landmark ruling last week, Mehta ruled that Google is a “monopolist” that has relied on billions of dollars in payments to partners like Apple, Samsung and AT&T — including $26.3 billion in 2021 alone — to ensure that its engine search function is enabled by default. on most smartphones.

Mehta ruled that Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in two markets — general search services and general text advertising — and found that default search engine agreements “are exclusive and have anticompetitive effects.”

The DOJ is expected to ask Mehta to block Google from offering default deals in the future.

Google shares fell more than 1% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

A proposal to break up Google would be the first of its kind by the feds in more than 20 years. The DOJ won a major antitrust case against Microsoft, but later abandoned its attempt to break up the company in 2001.

The DOJ will outline its proposed solutions to address Google’s monopoly during the second set of court proceedings related to the antitrust case, which are scheduled to begin in September.

Google declined to comment. DD could not immediately be reached for comment.

Google has already indicated that it plans to appeal Mehta’s decision.

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but concludes that we should not be allowed to make it readily available,” the company’s president of global affairs Kent Walker said in a statement last week.