‘Wildly overboard proposal which…’ Google’s response to US Department of Justice's demand for selling Chrome

Google

Google is not happy and has made it clear what it think of the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) proposal to sell Chrome. In a blog post, Kent Walker, chief legal office, Google and Alphabet said that DOJ has “filed a staggering proposal that seeks dramatic changes to Google services.”

Walker said that DOJ is choosing to push a “radical interventionist agenda” that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership. “DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives,” Walker said in a blog post.

On DOJ’s suggestion of selling Chrome, Walker said that it could endanger the security and privacy of millions of Americans, and undermine the quality of products people love, by forcing the sale of Chrome and potentially Android. Google feels that by doing so it would “deliberately hobble people’s ability to access Google Search.”

“DOJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardise America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most,” Walker said.

Why DOJ wants Google to sell Chrome?

The Department of Justice has stated that Google must separate from its Chrome web browser to reestablish fair competition in the online search market. Furthermore, it also seeks to prohibit Google from giving preferential treatment to its search engine on its own platforms, such as YouTube or Gemini.

Earlier in August this year, a US Court had ruled that Google had violated antitrust laws and said “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

What happens next?

The DOJ plans to submit an updated version of its proposals by early March. This will set the stage for a two-week remedies trial between the government and Google, scheduled to take place in April at the DC District Court. Walker, meanwhile, said that “we’ll file our own proposals next month, and will make our broader case next year.”