The Department of Justice says that Google must divest the Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market, and it left the door open to requiring the company to spin out Android, too.
Filed late Wednesday in DC District Court, the initial proposed final judgement refines the DOJ’s earlier high-level outline of remedies after Judge Amit Mehta found Google maintained an illegal monopoly in search and search text advertising.
The filing includes a broad range of requirements the DOJ hopes the court will impose on Google — from restricting the company from entering certain kinds of agreements to more broadly breaking the company up. The DOJ’s latest proposal doubles down on its request to spin out Google’s Chrome browser, which the government views as a key access point for searching the web.
The possibility of an Android spin-out could hang over Google’s head
While the government isn’t going as far as to demand Google spin out its Android business, it’s leaving the option open. The possibility of an Android spin-out could hang over Google’s head to incentivize it against circumventing other remedies, but the government says a spin-out could also be mandated should those other solutions prove ineffective at restoring competition to the market. The DOJ says Google might even choose divestiture itself if the company doesn’t want to comply with some of the other rules the government is proposing against self-preferencing Google Search in Android.
Other remedies the government is asking the court to impose include prohibiting Google from offering money or anything of value to third parties — including Apple and other phone-makers — to make Google’s search engine the default, or to discourage them from hosting search competitors. It also wants to ban Google from preferencing its search engine on any owned-and-operated platform (like YouTube or Gemini), mandate it let rivals access its search index at “marginal cost, and on an ongoing basis,” and require Google to syndicate its search results, ranking signals, and US-originated query data for 10 years. The DOJ is also asking that Google let websites opt-out of its AI overviews without being penalized in search results.
In response, Google published a blog post saying the DOJ’s proposed remedies go “wildly overboard.” The post, attributed to Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker, says the DOJ is pushing “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”
The DOJ will file a revised version of its proposals in early March, before the government and Google return to the DC District Court in April for a two-week remedies trial. It’s the second stage of the litigation, with Mehta now tasked with determining the best way to restore competition in the markets.
The remedies trial will take place with a new administration overseeing the DOJ, which could impact the sorts of solutions it ultimately pursues. But the case was originally filed during the first Trump administration, which suggests Google won’t be entirely off the hook.
Google and the DOJ are scheduled to deliver closing arguments in a separate antitrust case playing out in Alexandria, VA on Monday, regarding its advertising technology business.
Update, November 21st: Added Google’s response.
