DOJ antitrust officials reportedly pushing for Google to sell off Chrome browser

The Department of Justice is weighing several remedies to resolve an antitrust case against Google over its search monopoly — including possibly forcing Alphabet to sell its Chrome browser.

Officials from the DOJ are reportedly planning to ask a judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser.

The remedy would follow a ruling in August in which a federal judge found the tech giant violated the law and held a monopoly on online search.

The DOJ’s antitrust division is also expected to ask Judge Amit Mehta to impose data licensing requirements along with other remedies tied to AI and its Android smartphone operating system, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the plans.

Prosecutors have proposed and the Department of Justice is considering several potential remedies to resolve the violation, including a potential breakup of some of Google’s basic businesses — like its search engine, B-17 previously reported.

“The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of Google’s regulatory affairs, told B-17 in a statement. “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.”

Breaking off Chrome would be a substantial blow to the tech titan’s Google Services branch, which makes most of its money through advertising. B-17 previously reported Google’s total search revenue was $279.8 billion in 2022.

Google is also dealing with the fallout from a second antitrust case related to its Play Store after a judge last month ruled that Google must open up Android to rival third-party app stores as part of a landmark antitrust case against the tech giant.

The rulings are part of what management and law experts previously told B-17 signals a shift in antitrust law against large tech companies.

“In recent years, the government has been trying to countervail the high pricing power of dominant tech companies,” Peter Cohan, an associate professor of management practice at Babson College, previously told B-17. “This fits into that shift.”

Representatives for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.