ALBAWABA - In its antitrust lawsuit against Google, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is allegedly drafting a series of severe measures intended to undermine the tech giant's dominance in the digital advertising and online search industries.
The DOJ is anticipated to demand that Google sell its popular Chrome browser, claiming antitrust breaches related to the company's attempts to keep an unlawful monopoly in search services, according to Bloomberg.
The move comes after a decision by Judge Amit Mehta, who found that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly, primarily by using integrated products and exclusive agreements to retain its dominance in search. The DOJ asserts that by pushing Google's own products and suppressing alternatives, Chrome has played a significant role in reducing competition, The Verge reports.
Furthermore, the DOJ is advocating for fundamental modifications to Google's Android environment, according to The Guardian. The aim of the suggested actions is to separate Android from Google Play and Google Search in order to disrupt the closely knit ecosystem without having to sell Android outright.
The proposed changes could potentially make it more difficult for Google, which currently controls around 90% of the worldwide search industry, to maintain its present market position.
The company's vice president of regulatory relations, Lee-Anne Mulholland, denounced the DOJ's strategy, calling it "radical overreach" that would hurt consumers and impede innovation, saying it goes beyond the case's legal scope.
She went on to argue that developers, customers, and American technical leadership will all suffer from the suggested changes.
