Overcoming Monopoly, US Department Of Justice Proposes Google To Sell Chrome

Chrome browser illustration (photo: Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is calling on Google to sell its browser, Chrome, to stop their illegal monopoly on providing online search engines.

In a 23-page document, DOJ also calls on Google to limit the availability of its customers to its smartphones. Thus, this will prevent them from using Android to harm their competitors.

"To overcome this challenge, Google must sell Chrome, which has strengthened (Google), so competitors can pursue a distribution partnership that reality controls," DOJ wrote in the document.

Google Response

Responding to DOJ's call, Kent Walker as President, Global Affairs & Chief Legal Officer, Google & Alphabet, argued that the proposal was very surprising.

The vast DOJ proposal goes far beyond the Court's decision. It will damage various Google products even outside of Search that people like and consider useful in their daily lives," Walker said in a Google blog.

According to Google, one of these extreme proposals will jeopardize the security and privacy of millions of Americans, and damage the quality of products people like, by imposing Chrome sales and possibly Android.

Walker also feels the DOJ approach will result in an unprecedented expansion of government power that will harm American consumers, developers and small businesses.

However, the final decision on Google's issue will later be in the hands of District Court judge Amit Mehta. The trial stage is expected to begin around 2025.

"We are still in the early stages of a long process and many of these demands are clearly far from what the Court orders even echo. We will submit our own proposal next month, and will file our wider case next year," he concluded.