Google fights decision that puts Chrome for sale

Google criticizes DOJ’s proposal to sell Chrome, calling it “extreme” and warning of risks to innovation and competition

Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, called the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposal to force it to sell its web browser “extreme” and said the measure contradicts the law, warning a federal judge about the risk. stifling innovation and future investment.

In a document filed Friday, Google responded to the DOJ’s request and suggested its own solution. The company argued that the proposal to sell the Chrome browser is not related to the conduct considered illegal by the judge, which involves exclusive contracts with browsers, smartphone manufacturers and telecommunications operators.

“Extreme measures are discouraged” by the courts, Google said in the document. Remedies for anticompetitive conduct “must be of the same type or class as the violations,” the company said.

Last month, the DOJ and a group of states asked Judge Amit Mehta to order Google to sell the Chrome browser and implement several changes to its business to improve competition in the online search market.

Google suggested that any solution would allow competing browsers, like Apple’s Safari, the freedom to make deals with whichever search engine they deem best for their users. Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a company blog post that Google’s proposal would also allow it to share revenue with competing browsers and include multiple search engines as defaults across different platforms.

Additionally, device makers could preload multiple search engines and would not be required to include Chrome and Google search if they wanted to offer other Google apps.

The document filed by Google on Friday is its first official response since Mehta ruled earlier this year that the company illegally monopolized the online search and advertising markets. Google said it plans to appeal, but will only be able to do so after the case is concluded.

“If the DOJ felt that Google’s investment in Chrome, its development of AI, or the way we crawl the web or develop our algorithms were anticompetitive, it could have brought these cases. He did not,” Mulholland wrote.

The judge scheduled a hearing in April to decide how to fix the lack of competition in sectors dominated by Google and promised a final decision by August 2025.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment and referred to previous documentation in the case.

With information from Bloomberg*