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DOJ may be ready to break up Google. It needs to convince a judge first.

Alexis Keenan · Senior Legal Reporter

Wed, Nov 20, 2024, 1:00 AM 4 min read

In This Article:

The Justice Department apparently wants Google's empire to be broken up, but it has to convince a judge that should happen first.

The process starts Wednesday when US prosecutors are expected to submit a document in federal court outlining specific remedies after successfully arguing in a landmark trial that Google ran its search engine empire as an illegal monopoly.

The DOJ is expected to ask for Google's Alphabet parent (GOOG, GOOGL) to sell off its Chrome browser, according to a report in Bloomberg. The Wall Street Journal reported that divestments could include the Android mobile operating system if Google doesn't meet certain conditions.

Prosecutors may also call for new data licensing requirements or an end to agreements that secure Google's search engine as a default on mobile devices and internet browsers.

DOJ outlined a framework of options last month, but the filing Wednesday is expected to be a lot more specific about what it wants to happen.

It will then be up to District of Columbia District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who sided with the DOJ’s monopoly argument, to decide what should happen next in a separate "remedies" phase of the trial that will likely start in 2025.

A DOJ breakup request would be the latest of many aggressive signals sent to the tech world during a wide-ranging effort by the Biden administration to rein in what it views as anticompetitive behavior across a number of industries.

DOJ may ask for Google's empire to be broken up in a new document Wednesday. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images) · NurPhoto via Getty Images

The administration has already alleged anticompetitive conduct against tech giants Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) and claimed that Microsoft's acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard would create a gaming market monopoly.

"The DOJ continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case," Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google's vice president of regulatory affairs told Yahoo Finance in an email.

"The government putting its thumb on the scale in these ways would harm consumers, developers and American technological leadership at precisely the moment it is most needed."

It is not yet known whether a new Trump administration would let all of those Big Tech antitrust cases continue.

Some legal experts don't expect the crackdown to let up. After all, it was Trump's DOJ that initiated the antitrust suit against Google after it concluded the company used illegal tactics to monopolize search.

But Trump in October also suggested that Google’s punishment could be accomplished without forcing it to sell off parts of its empire.

"What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair," Trump said in an Oct. 15 interview.

He described Google’s search engine as "rigged" and expressed concern that consequences for Google in the case could favor China.

The proposal to carve up Google would be the first step from the Justice Department to break apart a tech empire since it tried to do so more than two decades ago with Microsoft (MSFT).

That case resulted in a 2002 settlement that opened the door to broader competition in the internet browser software market.

A DOJ request to divest part of Google’s empire isn’t surprising, according to Vanderbilt Law School associate dean for research Rebecca Allensworth, because "it makes sense to ask for more than you are going to get."

But what she expects the judge to actually approve is data sharing as opposed to a spinoff of Chrome.

"We don’t know what the judge is going to impose yet," she told Yahoo Finance on Tuesday.

Jean-Paul Schmetz, chief of ads for search engine provider Brave, said a spinoff of Chrome is not likely to achieve the government's goals.

"My opinion is that if you have a browser — Safari, Firefox, Brave, whatever — and you send traffic to Google, then you should be compensated in a non discriminatory manner," Schmetz said.

"At the moment," Schmetz added, "you only get money if you promise to Google that you're not going to compete against them."

WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 31: Judge Amit Mehta, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, speaks during the Justice Department's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Observance Program, at the Justice Department, on May 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) — Judge Amit Mehta, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) · Mark Wilson via Getty Images

Judge Mehta has scheduled a remedies hearing to take place in April, and he has previously said he plans to issue a final ruling by August 2025.

Google has promised to appeal. And Judge Mehta could hold off on any orders to alter Google's behavior while it challenges his ruling in D.C.’s Circuit Court of Appeals.

The judge would lose the right to impose remedies if Google is found not to have broken the law on appeal.

And even if Google fails and is ordered to change its behavior, Judge Mehta could later adjust his orders to better ensure competition is restored.

What is not yet known is how Trump’s term, which starts Jan. 20, could alter how this case is resolved.

Google is "going to appeal this case," former Federal Trade Commission chief technologist Neil Chilson told Yahoo Finance. "We are probably pretty far from any total final resolution."

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