US regulators seek to break up Google, forcing Chrome sale as part of monopoly punishment
Washington, Nov 21: US regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade.
The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the US Department of Justice calls for sweeping punishments that would include a sale of Google's industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions to prevent Android from favouring its own search engine.
A sale of Chrome “will permanently stop Google's control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet”, Justice Department lawyers argued in their filing.
Although regulators stopped short of demanding Google sell Android too, they asserted the judge should make it clear the company could still be required to divest its smartphone operating system if its oversight committee continues to see evidence of misconduct.
The broad scope of the recommended penalties underscores how severely regulators operating under President Joe Biden's administration believe Google should be punished following an August ruling by US District Judge Amit Mehta that branded the company as a monopolist.
The Justice Department decision-makers who will inherit the case after President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year might not be as strident. The Washington, DC, court hearings on Google's punishment are scheduled to begin in April and Mehta is aiming to issue his final decision before Labour Day.
If Mehta embraces the government's recommendations, Google would be forced to sell its 16-year-old Chrome browser within six months of the final ruling. But the company certainly would appeal any punishment, potentially prolonging a legal tussle that has dragged on for more than four years.
Besides seeking a Chrome spinoff and a corralling of the Android software, the Justice Department wants the judge to ban Google from forging multibillion-dollar deals to lock in its dominant search engine as the default option on Apple's iPhone and other devices. It would also ban Google from favouring its own services, such as YouTube or its recently-launched artificial intelligence platform, Gemini.
Regulators also want Google to license the search index data it collects from people's queries to its rivals, giving them a better chance at competing with the tech giant. On the commercial side of its search engine, Google would be required to provide more transparency into how it sets the prices that advertisers pay to be listed near the top of some targeted search results.
Kent Walker, Google's chief legal officer, lashed out at the Justice Department for pursuing “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America's global technology”.
In a blog post, Walker warned the “overly broad proposal” would threaten personal privacy while undermining Google's early leadership in artificial intelligence, “perhaps the most important innovation of our time”.
Wary of Google's increasing use of artificial intelligence in its search results, regulators also advised Mehta to ensure websites will be able to shield their content from Google's AI training techniques.
The measures, if they are ordered, threaten to upend a business expected to generate more than USD 300 billion in revenue this year.
“The playing field is not level because of Google's conduct, and Google's quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired,” the Justice Department asserted in its recommendations. “The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”
It's still possible that the Justice Department could ease off attempts to break up Google, especially if Trump takes the widely expected step of replacing Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, who was appointed by Biden to oversee the agency's antitrust division.
Although the case targeting Google was originally filed during the final months of Trump's first term in office, Kanter oversaw the high-profile trial that culminated in Mehta's ruling against Google.
Working in tandem with Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, Kanter took a get-tough stance against Big Tech that triggered other attempted crackdowns on industry powerhouses such as Apple and discouraged many business deals from getting done during the past four years.
Trump recently expressed concerns that a breakup might destroy Google but didn't elaborate on alternative penalties he might have in mind. “What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it's more fair,” Trump said last month.
Matt Gaetz, the former Republican congressman that Trump nominated to be the next US Attorney General, has previously called for the breakup of Big Tech companies.
Gaetz faces a tough confirmation hearing.
This latest filing gave Kanter and his team a final chance to spell out measures that they believe are needed to restore competition in search. It comes six weeks after Justice first floated the idea of a breakup in a preliminary outline of potential penalties.
But Kanter's proposal is already raising questions about whether regulators seek to impose controls that extend beyond the issues covered in last year's trial, and — by extension — Mehta's ruling.
Banning the default search deals that Google now pays more than USD 26 billion annually to maintain was one of the main practices that troubled Mehta in his ruling.
It's less clear whether the judge will embrace the Justice Department's contention that Chrome needs to be spun out of Google, and the recommendation that Android should be completely walled off from the company's own search engine.
“It is probably going a little beyond,” Syracuse University law professor Shubha Ghosh said of the Chrome breakup. “The remedies should match the harm, it should match the transgression. This does seem a little beyond that pale.”
Google rival DuckDuckGo, whose executives testified during last year's trial, asserted the Justice Department is simply doing what needs to be done to rein in a brazen monopolist.
“Undoing Google's overlapping and widespread illegal conduct over more than a decade requires more than contract restrictions: it requires a range of remedies to create enduring competition,” Kamyl Bazbaz, DuckDuckGo's senior vice president of public affairs, said in a statement.
Trying to break up Google harks back to a similar punishment initially imposed on Microsoft a quarter century ago following another major antitrust trial that culminated in a federal judge deciding the software maker had illegally used his Windows operating system for PCs to stifle competition.
However, an appeals court overturned an order that would have broken up Microsoft, a precedent many experts believe will make Mehta reluctant to go down a similar road with the Google case.
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Mumbai Indians defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in IPL
Hyderabad, Apr 23 (PTI): Rohit Sharma scored his second successive half-century and shared a 53-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav (40 not out) as Mumbai Indians thrashed Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets to register their fourth consecutive win in the IPL, here on Wednesday.
Chasing a below-par 143 for 8, built on the efforts of Heinrich Klaasen efforts (71 off 44 balls) and his 99-run stand with Abhinav Manohar (43 off 37 balls), Rohit was in his zone as he hit 70 off 46 deliveries to bring a swift end to the home team's misery in 15.4 overs.
Earlier, pacers Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult led an impressive bowling show as Mumbai Indians restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Chahar (2/12) and Boult (4/26) rattled SRH in their opening spells as Pat Cummins' side were reduced to 13 for 4 in the fifth over before Heinrich Klaasen pulled things back a bit with his classy half-ton.
Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 143 for 8 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 71, Abhinav Manohar 43; Deepak Chahar 2/12, Trent Boult 4/26).
Mumbai Indians: 146 for 3 in 15.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 70, Will Jacks 22, Suryakumar Yadav 40 not out).
