The US justice department is considering asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off parts of its business in what would be a historic breakup of one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Antitrust enforcers are weighing a breakup to mitigate Alphabet’s dominance in search, the agency said in a court filing on Tuesday. Judge Amit Mehta could also order Google to provide access to the underlying data it uses to build its search results and artificial intelligence products, it said.
The justice department “is considering behavioural and structural remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products and features,” the agency said.
The 32-page document lays out a framework of potential options for the judge to consider as the case moves to the remedy phase. The agency will provide a fuller proposal on remedies next month.
The effort is the most significant move to rein in a major tech company over illegal monopolisation since Washington unsuccessfully sought to break up Microsoft two decades ago. The justice department and the US federal trade commission have targeted Big Tech dominance, scrutinising deals and investments and accusing some of the country’s most powerful companies of illegally dominating markets.
Google shares fell 1% in premarket trading in New York on Wednesday. A breakup of the company “is unlikely at this point despite the antitrust swirls,” said Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities. “Google will battle this in the courts for years.”
Google criticised the justice department’s filing as “radical,” saying it would have “significant unintended consequences for consumers, businesses, and American competitiveness.” The DOJ’s proposals go “well beyond the legal scope of the Court’s decision about Search distribution contracts,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog post.
