US regulators want to break Google’s monopoly, may force it to sell Chrome

US regulators have urged a federal judge to prevent Google from choking out competition through its search engine, after a court ruled that Google had unfairly built a monopoly in the sector over the past decade. The proposed breakup of Google in a 23-page document filed by the US Justice Department on Wednesday night seeks penalties that would include a ban on Google from selling its leading Chrome web browser and from advocating for its own search engine on Android.

Chrome is the gateway to the Internet for many users

Justice Department lawyers argued that the sale of Chrome would ‘permanently eliminate Google’s control over this important point of discovery and give a variety of rival search engines the ability to access the browser that is the gateway to the Internet for many users.’ Regulators stopped short of demanding that Google sell Android, but they insisted that the judge should make clear that the company may still have to sell its smartphone operating system if the oversight committee continues to find evidence of misconduct.

The company was labeled a monopolist

The broad scope of the recommended penalty underscores how severely regulators, working under President Joe Biden’s administration, believe Google should be punished following a ruling by US District Judge Amit Mehta in August. In this decision, the company was labeled a monopolist. A Washington, D.C. court hearing on Google’s punishment is scheduled to begin in April, and Mehta is aiming to issue his final decision before Labor Day. If Mehta accepts the government’s recommendations, Google would be forced to stop selling its 16-year-old Chrome browser within six months of the final verdict. But the company will almost certainly appeal any sentence, potentially prolonging a legal battle that has been going on for more than four years.