The Justice Department is telling Google to divest from its Chrome browser in an effort to be in compliance with antitrust law.
“Google must promptly and fully divest Chrome, to a buyer approved by the Plaintiffs in their sole discretion, subject to terms that the Court and Plaintiffs approve,” the Justice Department said in its proposed final judgment.
HOW TRUMP COULD IMPACT THE PENTAGON
The judgment filed on Thursday includes calls forbidding the tech giant from paying phone device makers to make Google search the default search engine, mandating Google share its search index with rivals, and also making it easier for publishers to opt-out from their content being used by Google for AI.
This comes just months after Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court of D.C. ruled in August that Google was operating as an illegal monopoly. By next summer, Mehta will lay out changes Google will need to make in order to restore competition.
Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer called the Department of Justice’s proposal “unprecedented government overreach.”
“DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives,” Walker wrote.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In 1982, AT&T was forced to divest in its local operating companies after a federal judge found it in violation of antitrust law — thus potentially making this the second time that a Big Tech company was found in violation of antitrust laws.
The Google ruling comes just months before the transition to a new presidential administration, leaving questions as to how the Trump administration will handle these court cases.