The U.S. Department of Justice will reportedly require Google to sell its Chrome browser.
The department’s antitrust officials will request a federal judge’s order to mandate a sale today, according to Bloomberg. Chrome is the most widely used browser worldwide, and Bloomberg estimated it could sell for US$20 billion (A$30.75 billion).
“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,” said Google’s Regulatory Affairs Vice President Lee-Anne Mulholland.
The federal judge, Amit Mehta, ruled in August that Google violated the law in its efforts to hold a monopoly on online searches. It was sued by the Department of Justice in 2020.
Prosecutors argued Google paid over $10 billion each year to companies like Apple and Samsung to ensure Google was installed as the default search engine on their products.
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta said in his opinion.
Google plans to appeal the ruling.
The Department of Justice will also reportedly require Google to license the data from its search engine.
“Forcing the sharing of your searches with other companies could create major privacy and security risks,” said Mulholland last month. “The search queries you share with Google are often sensitive and personal and are protected by Google's strict security standards”
Hearings will begin in April, and Mehta is expected to issue a final ruling by August 2025.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company (NASDAQ: GOOG), saw share prices close at $177.63, down slightly from the previous day’s $177.69. Its market cap is $2.16 trillion.