The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering asking a federal judge to order Google to break off its search business from other portions of the company to address its illegal monopoly over online search.
In a filing late Tuesday night, federal prosecutors said they are looking at a variety of options, including structural remedies, in the case.
This could include barring Google from entering into agreements that ensure its search engine is the default on devices, requiring Google to share its data with rivals or separating Google Search from Chrome, Play and Android.
“Google’s anticompetitive conduct resulted in interlocking and pernicious harms that present unprecedented complexities in a highly evolving set of markets,” the DOJ’s filing reads.
“These markets are indispensable to the lives of all Americans, whether as individuals or as business owners, and the importance of effectively unfettering these markets and restoring competition cannot be overstated,” it continues.
Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, described the government’s filing in a blog post Tuesday night as a “broad outline of radical changes.”
“This is the start of a long process and we will respond in detail to the DOJ’s ultimate proposals as we make our case in court next year,” Mulholland wrote. “However, we are concerned the DOJ is already signaling requests that go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.”
She argued that splitting off Chrome or Android from Search would “break them,” undermining their “robust competition” with Apple.
The DOJ’s proposed remedies come just over two months after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s landmark antitrust decision, finding that Google had maintained an illegal monopoly over online search and some advertising related to search.
Google is also currently on trial in a second antitrust case brought by the Justice Department in 2023 over its dominance in advertising technology. Arguments in the ad tech trial have largely wrapped up, with the two sides set to return to the Alexandria courthouse for closing arguments in late November.
The tech giant was dealt a blow in yet another antitrust case brought by Fortnite make Epic Games on Monday, when a federal judge in California ruled that it must open up the Play Store to rival third-party Android app stores.
