The United States Ministry of Justice and Google face the court for allegations that the company illegally maintains its domination in the search engine market. Consequently, the Doj pleads so that Google sends some of its key assets, including its Chrome browser. The hearings began on April 22 and should last three weeks.
This proposal aroused the interest of several technological companies, notably Openai, Perplexity AI and Yahoo, all expressing their desire to buy Chrome if the court obliged its sale.
The case could change the way technological companies do business, as well as the way people find answers to their online research requests. Government lawyers have asserted their cause in the opening statements on Monday, saying that Google should be forced to sell Chrome, its web browser, which pushes people to the Google search engine.
The company should also be forced to help compete with the search engines which it has unjustly held away from competition, said lawyer for the Ministry of Justice David Dahlquist.
“It’s time for the court to tell Google and all the other monopolists who listen, and they listen, that there are consequences when you violate antitrust laws,” said Dahlquist, according to the New York Times.
Google meters
Google lawyers say that any remedy should only consider the company’s agreements with companies such as Apple, Mozilla and Samsung to make it the default search engine for smartphones and other devices.
“Google has won its place in the market fair and Square,” said lawyer for John Schmidtlein, according to NBC News.
Judge Amit P. Mehta, of the American district court of the Columbia district, now hears arguments and leaders of large artificial technology and intelligence companies have testified.
Mehta is the same judge who ruled in August that Google had illegally maintained a research monopoly. This trial, held last year, took 10 weeks and had years.
“After having carefully considered and weighed the testimony and evidence of the witnesses, the court reached the following conclusion: Google is a monopolyist, and he acted as one to maintain his monopoly,” wrote Mehta in the decision of August. “He violated article 2 of the Sherman law.”
After Mehta heard arguments, he should order remedies by the end of the summer.
Look at this: The judge says that Google is an illegal monopoly: now what?
Google is currently the king of online research, with more than 89% global market share, according to Globalstats, down slightly compared to 91% last summer.
A Google representative referred CNET to the company’s online declaration before the hearings start. In IT, the vice-president of the Lee-Anne Mulholland company said that such radical remedies would harm the American economy.
Mulholland calls for action “A case of rear aspect” and says that the DoJ’s proposal would make users more difficult to obtain favorite services, would prevent the company from competing fairly and would force Google to share private research requests from users with other companies.
Openai, Perplexity and Yahoo want to buy chrome
On Tuesday, Nick Turley, director of Openai, said that his business would be interested in buying the Google Chrome browser if the company was forced to sell it.
He also said that Chatgpt, Openai’s artificial intelligence chatbot, is “for years its goal of being able to use its own research technology to meet 80% of requests”, according to Reuters. Turley also testified that Google refused an OpenAi attempt to use Google search technology in Chatgpt.
Two other companies also expressed interesting to buy Chrome – Perplexity AI and Yahoo.
Perplexity business director Dmitry Shevelenko expressed interest in buying Chrome in court.
Yahoo’s general director of research, Brian Provost, also said that the company wanted to acquire Chrome. Yahoo has developed its own browser prototype, but believes that buying chrome is a faster route to increase its search market share, according to The Verge.
Potential results
Many things could happen to Google, including a rupture of the company. If such a penalty was instituted, this might involve breaking the Chrome browser or the company’s Android smartphones operating system.
The DoJ wants to prohibit Google from concluding exclusive agreements that make its search engine as by default on devices and browsers. The Ministry of Justice also wants Google to share certain user data with competitors to level the playground.
This would be the government’s first attempt to dismantle an illegal monopolization company since its unsuccessful efforts to break Microsoft two decades ago.
Google could also be forced to make its data available to competitors or abandon the controversial economic offers that have made Google search engine the default value on devices such as iPhone.
Why is it important?
Google is not the only company in the face of legal problems. Large Apple and Amazon technological companies are also faced with antitrust proceedings. An antitrust trial against Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threats and Whatsapp, started on April 14.
The test could also affect the era of booming artificial intelligence. The Ministry of Justice said that if the remedies are not imposed on Google, it expects Google to use its AI products to further extend its monopoly.
And since the August trial, presidential administrations have changed. As the Times notes, the hearings indicate that the Trump administration intends to keep an eye on the evolution of the technological industry.
Do people spend default search engines?
The August case has focused on Apple Google Paid and other companies to make its search engine the default value on devices such as Apple iPhone. Google said that he had not maintained a monopoly through such agreements and that consumers could change the defects of their device to use other search engines.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in October that the idea that people pass from one search engine to another is “completely false” and added “by default is the only thing that matters to modify the search behavior”.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the Google search engine is used for almost 90% of web searches, but the company disputes this number, reports the Times.
The Sherman Antitrust Act, which dates from 1890, prohibits activities restricting interstate trade and market competition, essentially prohibiting companies from companies. It is the cornerstone of American antitrust legislation, leading to the breakdown of the federal government of industrial giants of the end of the 19th century.
The Imad Khan de Cnet contributed to this report.
