Key points:
- The Justice Department seeks to break up Google's search monopoly by forcing the divestiture of its Chrome browser.
- Proposed remedies also include restrictions on default search deals with Apple and Samsung.
- The trial could result in landmark changes to how users access the internet and search for information.
The Justice Department on Monday opened a high-stakes remedies trial in federal court, urging a judge to force Google to sell its Chrome web browser as part of a broader strategy to dismantle what the government describes as an illegal monopoly over internet search. The trial, held before Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., marks a critical phase in one of the most significant antitrust cases of the modern tech era.
DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist argued that Google’s control over Chrome and its payments to smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung to secure default search engine placement have created a self-reinforcing “feedback loop” that excludes competitors. “We’re here to restore competition,” Dahlquist said, likening Google’s dominance to a “block of ice” that needs to thaw through structural remedies, including divestitures and mandated data sharing.
The government is asking Judge Mehta to compel Google to divest Chrome and prohibit it from entering default search deals with device manufacturers. If those remedies fail to shift market dynamics within five years, DOJ is asking the court to consider ordering the separation of Android, Google’s mobile operating system.
Google’s defense was led by attorney John Schmidtlein, who called the proposed remedies “extreme” and claimed they would punish Google for its business success. “Google won its place in the market fair and square,” Schmidtlein argued, citing the company’s investments in mobile technology as key to its leadership in the search industry. He warned that forced divestitures would “harm competition, not promote it.”
The trial comes just months after Google was found to have illegally monopolized digital advertising tools and its app store. In August 2023, Judge Mehta ruled that Google violated antitrust laws by using exclusionary tactics to maintain its search dominance, calling the company a “monopolist.” The remedies phase now underway will determine how that finding translates into corrective action.
The case has drawn comparisons to the landmark antitrust actions against AT&T in the 1980s and Microsoft in the 1990s. A ruling in favor of the DOJ could dramatically reshape not only Google’s business structure but the broader internet ecosystem. It may also open new opportunities for alternative search engines, browsers, and AI-driven tools to compete for user attention and market share.
Judge Mehta has said he expects to issue a decision on remedies by late summer. If the court orders Google to divest Chrome, the implications for user behavior and digital competition could be profound, ending an era in which Google has served as the de facto gateway to the web for billions of users.
Read more at The Washington Post.
