Lame-Duck Biden DOJ Tries To Drop The Hammer On Google

The outgoing Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) called upon a federal judge to force Google to sell its popular Chrome web browser in a legal filing submitted late Wednesday.

The DOJ argued in a 23-page filing that Google should be required to sell its industry-leading browser and restrict its Android smartphones from favoring its web browser after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google is a monopoly. Additionally, the government is seeking to block Google from striking major deals with Apple and other companies that would make Google’s search engine the default browser on devices like the iPhone.

“Google’s ownership and control of Chrome and Android — key methods for the distribution of search engines to consumers — poses a significant challenge to effectuate a remedy that aims to ‘unfetter market from anticompetitive conduct’ and ‘ensure that there remain no practices likely to result in monopolization in the future,’” the DOJ wrote in its filing. “To address these challenges, Google must divest Chrome, which has ‘fortified dominance,’ so that rivals may pursue distribution partnerships that this ‘realit of control.’” 

DOJ Google Filing by Nick Pope on Scribd

📺 Embedded media — coming soon

If the DOJ’s recommended forced sale comes to be, the transaction could cause huge business problems for Google, which is on pace to generate about $300 billion in revenues this year,