The US Department of Justice announced that Google has created a monopoly in the search engine market and that it should divide the company’s business to correct this situation. The Federal Court, in the last year’s decision, said that Google continued to dominate the market in an illegal way and ruled that various sanctions should be made on this issue. According to The Washington Post and The New York Times, the Ministry of Justice supported the previous administration’s solution proposals by making a new filing and reiterated that Google should sell the Chrome browser. The ministry argued that Chrome is within the company’s search engine market’s superiority in the search engine market, and that the sales of the browser would create a more fair competitive environment in the sector.
The Ministry of Justice also continued the proposal presented during the Biden administration period and aimed to prohibit it from making its own search engine assumed by paying to Apple, Mozilla and other smartphone manufacturers. It was emphasized that this regulation is important in terms of ending Google’s agreement that strengthens market domination.
However, the ministry withdrew the regulation proposed by the previous administration and required to withdraw from Google’s artificial intelligence initiatives. The main reason for this change was that Anthropic, an artificial intelligence initiative, needed Google’s financial support. Instead, the government said that instead of completely prohibiting Google’s investments in the artificial intelligence sector, the company should report to the federal and state officials in this field. According to Financial Times, Google invested anthropic in Anthropic earlier this year.
Google plans to offer its own alternatives against the solutions proposed by the Ministry of Justice. The company argued that the Ministry’s interventions are more comprehensive than the need for a solution in December, and emphasized that the court’s decision was only related to Google’s search engine distribution agreements. Google, Apple and Mozilla, such as payment to companies such as Google Search should continue to offer, but at the same time these companies should be allowed to make alternative agreements for different platforms argued. For example, options such as Apple’s ability to offer different default search engines on iPhone and iPads or can change the default search engines of browser companies every year.
These solutions offered by the Ministry of Justice have clues about how the Trump administration will approach major technology companies. The Biden administration had tried to implement strict arrangements for large technology companies, and the Trump administration is thought to have a similar attitude.
Google is trying to keep it well with Trump management
Google had donated to the Trump campaign before the 2024 presidential elections and stopped some practices for diversity policies recently. The company has announced that it will no longer implement its recruitment targets to increase the representation of the labor force. On the other hand, the US House of Representatives called on Google’s roof company Alphabet and CEO Sundar Pichai to the court to force Biden management to explain its communications about COVID-19 policies.
In this process, the judge Amit Mehta, who is looking at the case, will evaluate the solution proposals of the Ministry of Justice and Google in April. Mehta, who previously ruled that Google has abused market domination, will announce the final decisions that will correct this situation. It is expected that the decision to be taken may have great effects not only in Google but also throughout the technology sector.