Federal Authorities Consider Rare Effort to Break Up Google for Illegal Monopoly

Federal officials are reportedly considering whether to recommend to a judge that part of Google’s business be broken up after the search giant was found to have violated antitrust laws.

The U.S. Justice Department is reviewing the case and will make its recommendations to U.S. Judge Amit Mehta in the coming weeks. Last week, Judge Mehta ruled that Google has a monopoly on the internet search business and has taken illegal steps to maintain its power, including paying other companies to prioritize their search engine.

These recommendations could include forcing Google to break parts of its business, such as the Chrome browser or Android system, New York Times reports, citing anonymous officials familiar with the discussions.

Justice Department officials could also recommend to Judge Mehta that Google be forced to share data with rival companies. A federal judge could also order Google to end its contracts with tech companies like Apple that set its search engine as the default on their devices, according to Times.

Another option could be measures to prevent Google from gaining an unfair advantage in artificial intelligence, Bloomberg News reports.

The Justice Department and Google must present their case for ending the power imbalance by Sept. 4, Judge Mehta said. The next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 6.

A Department of Justice spokesman said: Times that no decisions have been made yet.

It was the largest antitrust case against the technology industry brought by the Justice Department since the infamous Microsoft case two decades ago, according to the Justice Department. Edge.

Google’s attorneys argued that it has enjoyed such great success because of its compelling product offerings, not monopolistic tactics. They also said that Google should be compared not only to other search engines but also to other companies, such as Amazon, that rely on web traffic.

“This decision recognizes that Google offers the best search engine, but says we shouldn’t be able to easily share it,” said Kent Walker, global president of Google parent company Alphabet Independent last week.

“We appreciate the Court’s ruling that Google is ‘the highest-quality search engine in the industry, trusted by hundreds of millions of daily users,’ that Google ‘has long been the best search engine, particularly on mobile devices,’ that it ‘continually innovates in search,’ and that ‘Apple and Mozilla occasionally evaluate Google’s search quality against competitors and believe that Google is better,’” he continued.

Google is also facing a separate case brought by the Justice Department and eight states accusing the company of dominating the online advertising market.

Independent contacted Google for comment.