[Simone Del Rosario]

Break up Google? The Justice Department is seeking the harshest antitrust penalty against a Big Tech company in more than two decades. If antitrust officials get their way, a judge could force Google to sell off Chrome.

Back in August, Judge Amit Mehta ruled the search giant monopolized the space. The DOJ and attorneys general from 38 states and territories initially sued Google for anti-competitive practices back in 2020.

The suit narrowed in on Google’s practice of paying billions to the likes of Apple and Samsung to have Google to be the default search engine on those devices. The New York Times said Google paid Apple $18 billion for the pleasure back in 2021.

The DOJ is expected to ask Judge Mehta for a number of remedies to reduce Google’s stranglehold on the industry, according to Bloomberg.

The headline action would be forcing Google to sell Chrome, the most-used web browser worldwide. The DOJ contends Chrome is a major gateway to get people to use Google’s search engine.

With more than 3 billion monthly active users, Bloomberg estimates Chrome could fetch as much as $20 billion.

If the judge demands it, it’ll give regulators the corporate-busting victory they failed to secure against Microsoft decades ago. But this step is one of the tallest orders. Bloomberg reports the feds could choose to go a lesser route if other actions make the search market more competitive.

Not to mention, who’s in shape to take Chrome off Google’s hands? Companies with the capital and tech prowess, like Amazon, have anti-competitive fights of their own.

Google Executive Lee-Anne Mulholland said in a statement to Straight Arrow News, “The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case.”

“The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed.”

While enforcers won’t seek the even bigger step of forcing Google to sell off Android, they are planning to force the company to unbundle the operating system from its other products, including the Google Play store and search.

And that’s not all. They may also require Google to share more information with advertisers and give them more power over where their ads appear … and recommend Google sell its search data to competitors, which could boost rival search engines.

For its part, Google said it would appeal the August ruling that deemed Google a monopoly. And states are still contemplating proposing even more remedies, according to Bloomberg.

Judge Mehta set a two-week hearing in April on what remedies Google must take, and plans to issue a final ruling by August of 2025.

But that won’t be the last we hear of this case, according to former FTC Chair William Kovacic.

WILLIAM KOVACIC:
If all of these appeals come about, we’re we’re a good two years away from a final answer with respect to liability and to remedies and for a case that began in 2020 in the second half of 2020 I guess all of us can look at that and say, is that a sensible way to make decisions about such fundamental matters of economic policy and operation a case that lasts the better part of seven years, but, but that’s what we’re in for going ahead. That’s roughly the timeline that might unfold.