the tech giant tries to keep its search engine

The Mountain View giant submitted its counter-proposals to the American courts on Friday, December 20, to avoid having to part with its Chrome search engine, which has been criticized for anti-competitive practices, as requested by the government. The Justice Department asked a federal judge in Washington in November to order the sale of Chrome, a historic dismantling for which it would remain to find a valid buyer, who would not reproduce a monopolistic situation.

In a 12-page document, the company instead proposes to relax the agreements signed with smartphone manufacturers providing that Chrome be the default browser on their devices or benefit from a dominant position. Considerable sums are paid to manufacturers, including Apple, so that Chrome maintains its hegemony, according to details of confidential agreements uncovered during Google's trial. If these contracts were less restrictive, manufacturers could, for example, natively install several search engines or allow software to be downloaded from Google without necessarily having to go through Chrome.

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Convicted of monopoly

“Nothing in this final judgment shall prohibit Google from granting remuneration to a manufacturer of mobile devices or to a wireless operator, in respect of any product or service of Google, in exchange for the distribution, placement (of the product or of the service) at any point of access, promotion or licensing of this product or service of Google”writes the digital giant in its proposal.

In August, federal judge Amit Mehta convicted Google of monopoly. Regardless of its final decision regarding the forced or non-forced transfer of Chrome, it is very likely that Google will appeal and thus drag out the procedure until the Supreme Court is eventually called upon to decide. What happens next could also depend on Donald Trump, who will return to the White House in January and will have the power to replace the Justice Department team in charge of the case.