The Ministry of Justice also prohibits the group from signing agreements with smartphone manufacturers to impose the default use of its search engine.
The American government asked the courts on Wednesday, November 20, to order Google to sell its Chrome browser, a sanction that would be historic for the technology giant already under fire for its anti-competitive practices.
In a court document, the Ministry of Justice calls for a split of the group's activities, also prohibiting Google from signing agreements with manufacturers to impose the default use of its search engine on smartphones. The authorities also want to prevent Google from taking advantage of its Android mobile operating system to promote its other products. They are even demanding that the technological giant sell Android for failure to propose developments in this direction.
A profound change on the part of the authorities
The possibility of demanding a Google split marks a profound shift by U.S. competition authorities who have largely left the tech giants alone since their failure to break up Microsoft 20 years ago. Google was found guilty last summer of illegal practices to establish and maintain its monopoly in online search by Amit Mehta, a federal judge in Washington. The latter could decide on the sentence in August 2025, after receiving the official request from the authorities in November and hearing both parties during a special hearing in April.
The ministry wants Google to divest itself of Chrome, the world's most widely used Internet browser, because it provides a major access point to the search engine, undermining the chances of potential competitors. According to the StatCounter website, in September Google accounted for 90% of the global online search market and even 94% on smartphones.
