Google plays the ‘China card’ as it says DOJ’s proposed measures would harm US economy

Google is pushing back against the U.S. Department of Justice’s sweeping remedies in the ongoing search antitrust case, arguing that the government’s proposals would cause more harm than good to consumers, innovation, and national security.

In a new blog post, the company criticised the DOJ’s attempts to impose restrictions that it claims go far beyond the court’s initial ruling in the 2020 lawsuit. “With new services like ChatGPT (and foreign competitors like DeepSeek) thriving, DOJ’s sweeping remedy proposals are both unnecessary and harmful,” said Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president, regulatory affairs, Google.

The DOJ is expected to propose structural changes, potentially including the breakup of key Google products like Chrome and Android. But Google argues that such a move would “break those platforms,” disrupt businesses that rely on them, and undermine the security infrastructure the company has built over years. According to Google, this could lead to cybersecurity vulnerabilities and higher device costs.

The company also warned that restricting its ability to compete for default search positions would weaken innovation and raise prices. Many device makers and browsers, like Mozilla’s Firefox, rely on Google’s search revenue. Removing that, the company says, would destabilize the ecosystem.