US government lawyers said that artificial intelligence is set to increase the tech giant’s dominance in internet searches and urged a federal judge on Monday to order Google to spin off its Chrome browser.
At a hearing before District Judge Amit Mehta, who is deliberating “remedies” following his historic ruling last year that Google had an unlawful monopoly in internet search, the Department of Justice (DOJ) presented its case.
“Nothing less than the future of the internet is at stake here,” Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater said prior to the start of the hearing in Washington.
“If Google’s conduct is not remedied, it will control much of the internet for the next decade and not just in internet search, but in new technologies like artificial intelligence.”
One of the IT firms making significant investments to become a leader in artificial intelligence is Google, which is integrating the technology into its search engine and other internet services.
By suggesting a spinoff of its popular Chrome and threatening to compel the sale of its Android mobile operating system, Google said that the United States had gone much beyond the bounds of the lawsuit.
According to Google President of Global Affairs Kent Walker, the lawsuit centered on Google’s distribution agreements with partners like Apple and Samsung.
“The DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership,” Walker wrote in a blog post.
“The DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision.”
In 2020, the DOJ initiated a complaint against Google for its dominance in online searches.
In August 2024, Judge Mehta rendered a decision against Google.
Ad tech under fire
Days after another US court this month declared that Google had monopolistic power in the online ad technology market—a legal setback that may shake the tech giant’s income engine—Google’s fight to defend Chrome was revived.
Alphabet-owned Google was sued for antitrust by the federal government and more than a dozen US states, alleging that it had engaged in unlawful behavior to control three areas of digital advertising: ad exchanges, advertiser tools, and publisher ad servers.
The plaintiffs claimed that because Google ad software products are used by the great majority of websites, publishers have no means to exclude Google’s advertising technology.
Judge Leonie Brinkema of the District Court partially rejected the argument about the tools used by advertisers, but she agreed with the majority of that rationale, finding that Google had established an unlawful monopoly over ad software and publisher tools.
“Google has willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,” Brinkema said in her ruling.
The judge came to the conclusion that by removing attractive product features and enforcing anticompetitive customer policies, Google strengthened its monopolistic power.
Google’s success is fueled by online advertising, which also funds the free provision of popular web services like Maps, Gmail, and search.
Google is able to invest billions of dollars in its artificial intelligence initiatives thanks to the money that is flooding its coffers.
When taken as a whole, the legal setbacks might cause Google to disintegrate and limit its power.
Google announced that it is contesting both decisions.
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