Google could be forced to sell Chrome. Here’s what you need to know

Google and federal officials are battling it out over a proposal that the tech giant be forced to sell its popular Chrome web browser to restore competition to the online search market.

The proposal, filed by the U.S. Department of Justice and several states this week, came after a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly over internet search.

The landmark decision opened the door to the current showdown over potential remedies that could reshape the tech giant’s multibillion-dollar business. As part of their proposed penalties, Justice Department officials also suggested the judge impose restrictions on Android, Google’s mobile operating system, to prevent it from favoring Google products.

The Department of Justice says forcing Google to divest Chrome would create more competition and stop the search giant’s control over a “browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet.” Google pushed back, calling the request an “unprecedented government overreach” that would harm consumers and U.S. tech leadership.

“This is to some extent a negotiating dance,” said George Hay, a Cornell University law professor and antitrust expert. “The DOJ is probably trying to get Google to be more cooperative in coming up with remedies that will fix the problem.”

Here’s what you need to know:

What are U.S. officials proposing?

The Justice Department outlined for the judge several possible solutions in its 23-page court filing, including forcing Google to sell Chrome and potentially Android as well if the company does not adequately address its practice of requiring smartphone makers to use Google products embedded in Android.

“The playing field is not level because of Google’s conduct, and Google’s quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired,” the filing says. “The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages.”

The Justice Department wants to bar Google from entering into exclusive agreements with content publishers, as well as owning or acquiring any interests in search rivals. Publishers should also be able to opt out of having Google use their content to train artificial intelligence tools, under the proposal. And Justice Department officials want advertisers to have more access to data and control over ads that show up in Google search results.

The Justice Department is trying to make consumers more aware of choices outside of Google, the world’s most popular search engine. Another potential fix includes requiring Google to display a “choice screen” on every Google browser when a user hasn’t selected a default search engine.

What’s Google’s response?

Google thinks the government’s proposal goes too far. Instead, the company thinks the government should focus solutions more narrowly on agreements it has with Apple, Mozilla, smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers that require the companies to favor Google’s search engine over others.

Kent Walker, chief legal officer at Google and its parent company, Alphabet, in a blog post called the government’s proposal a “radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”

Google opposes the idea that it should install “choice screens” on its browser and alleges that would hinder people’s abilities to use the company’s products.

Will this affect the way I search online?

Because Google’s punishment hasn’t been decided, it is too early to say how internet search could be affected. Antitrust experts said it depends on what remedies the judge in the case decides on and whether they withstand scrutiny by an appeals court. Some experts questioned whether any changes, even a forced sale of Chrome, would be effective in getting people to use other search engines.

“It will still be there in some way, shape or form, but it may be more subtle in terms of the effects on consumers,” said Shubha Ghosh, a law professor at Syracuse University.

It’s unclear who is interested in buying Google Chrome, which Bloomberg reported could be worth up to $20 billion.

Could the Trump administration affect Google’s punishment?

Possibly. President-elect Donald Trump has criticized Google over allegations that the search giant censors conservative speech, which the company has repeatedly denied.

But Trump, who reportedly took a phone call with Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai after he won the U.S. presidential election, has also stopped short of saying he would break up the search giant.

“It’s a very dangerous thing because we want to have great companies,” Trump said in an October interview moderated by Bloomberg News. “We don’t want China to have these companies. Right now, China is afraid of Google.”

Hay said he doesn’t anticipate Trump will pull the plug on the case, but the Justice Department could soften its proposed remedies.

What happens next?

Google said it will file its own proposals next month. Court hearings on Google’s punishment are scheduled to begin in April. Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, who is overseeing the case, is expected to make a decision on Google’s punishment by August 2025.

The Associated Press was used in compiling this report.