Google could be forced to sell Chrome

Google could be forced to sell Chrome. The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is reportedly planning to ask a federal judge to order the Alphabet company to dispense with its browser. An eventuality that, according to reports Bloomberg and broadcasts the news agency Reuterswould mark the outcome of an antitrust investigation aimed at limit the supposed monopoly of the technology giant in the market searches on-line.

Last August, a ruling by US District Judge Amit Mehta had ruled that the contracts signed by the company for its search engine was the default on the vast majority of devices violated US competition laws, leading the Mountain View giant to illegally holding a monopoly position in the online search market. Following this decision, the DoJ proposed a series of corrective measuresincluding the unlinking of Chrome and the interventions in the Android operating system and the company’s artificial intelligence technologies.

Google control

According to prosecutors, Chrome plays a key role in the Google ecosystemsince it allows the company to control the way in which users access the Internet and They see the advertising. With an estimated two-thirds market share globally, the browser also represents a strategic resource for the advertising business from Google, which also makes use of data collected from users during browsing to personalize ads.

Google, through a statement issued by its vice president of regulatory relations Lee-Anne Mulhollandcriticized the Justice Department’s initiative, calling it part of a “radical agenda“which, in his opinion, would go far beyond the legal issues raised by the case. The company maintains that any spin-off would harm consumers and is convinced that its dominant position in the search market is the result of the quality of its products, not anti-competitive practices.

Google has also stressed that Users can choose other default search engines and that openly competes with companies like Amazon in the search for products. In any case, the company has stated that it will appeal once a final ruling is issued, something that is expected to happen. not before August 2025.

With this in mind, the DoJ conducted between summer and fall a series of proposals that he considered useful to confront Google’s alleged monopoly. Among them, the termination of exclusivity agreements with Apple and other device manufacturers, under which Google pays billions of dollars a year to remain the default search engine.