Summary
- US judge proposes Google sells off Chrome browser to level the tech industry playing field.
- Google expected to surrender parts of its business following antitrust laws breach ruling.
- Justice Department may push for Google to sell off Android if company remains dominant in market.
It’s hard to ignore how large tech companies have become over the years. We’ve seen Google rise from a strangely-named search engine with a policy to “do no evil” to a giant corporation with a finger in every tech-based pie imaginable. However, it seems the company has overstepped its mark and has drawn the ire of the US court. At the start of the hearing of an antitrust case against Google, a judge has put forward the idea of Google breaking up and selling parts of its business, including the Chrome browser.
Related
4 browsers that are great Google Chrome alternatives
For those looking to de-Chrome, there’s a heap of great options, each with their own strengths.
A US judge wants Google to sell off Chrome to another company
As reported by the New York Times, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has been discussing the best way to take apart Google’s monopoly. Back in August, the judge ruled that Google did, in fact, break antitrust laws and would have to surrender some parts of itself to other companies to help level the playing field. Now comes the most important part: which parts should Google be forced to sell?
A Justice Department lawyer, David Dahlquist, thinks that the first sacrifice should be Google’s browser, Chrome:
“Chrome is a significant gateway to search,” said Mr. Dahlquist, adding that billions of dollars in search revenue flows through the widely used browser. “The divestiture of Chrome, when finalized, will give rivals access to a significant number of search queries to help compete with Google.”
The judge is on board with this idea, but there are still three weeks of discussion to be had as Google makes its defenses and tries to convince the judge to accept different terms. Google has already played its card, claiming that the reason people use its products over everyone else’s is because they’re better, but the Justice Department didn’t quite buy it.
Things may get worse if Google loses some of its businesses and is still found to be in a dominant position. If that happens, the Justice Department wants Judge Mehta to force Google to sell off Android, the beating heart of many smartphones around the world. We’ll have to wait and see if Google can keep its golden eggs, or if they’ll be sold off as a part to hamper Google’s dominance over the tech industry.
