The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a sweeping proposal on Wednesday requesting Google to divest its Chrome browser and potentially its Android operating system, marking a critical turn in the ongoing antitrust battle against the tech giant.
The proposal, submitted to District Court Judge Amit Mehta, who ruled in August that Google maintained an illegal monopoly in online search, seeks to fundamentally restructure the company’s operations. At its core, the DOJ wants Google to sell Chrome and stay out of the browser market for five years, end exclusive search default agreements with Apple and other distributors, share search data and results with competitors at nominal cost, and potentially divest Android if other remedies fail to restore competition.
“Google’s unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways,” the DOJ stated in its court filing.
Alphabet shares closed nearly 5% lower on Thursday. Kent Walker, Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer, pushed back strongly against the proposals in a blog post, calling them “unprecedented government overreach” that would “break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives.”
Chrome is the world’s most widely used web browser and is a pillar of Google’s business, providing user information that helps the company target ads more effectively. The browser’s market position helps maintain Google’s 90% share of the U.S. search market, a statistic that formed a central part of the DOJ’s argument.
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To enforce these changes, the DOJ proposed creating a five-person technical committee appointed by the judge. This committee, funded by Google, would have broad powers to demand documents, interview employees, and examine software code. The proposal also includes provisions for publishers to opt out of Google’s AI training data and requires Google to share user data with competitors for free, while placing restrictions on data collection that cannot be shared due to privacy concerns.
Judge Mehta has scheduled a trial on these proposals for April, with Google set to present its counter-proposals in December. Legal experts note the case could face appeals and take years to resolve. DuckDuckGo’s head of public affairs, Kamyl Bazbaz, voiced support for the measures: “We think this is a really big deal and will lower the barriers to competition.”
The proposals specifically address Google’s control over Android, which the DOJ filing identifies as “a critical platform on which search competitors rely and for which Google has myriad obvious and not-so-obvious ways to favor its own search product.” The DOJ presents two possible paths: either immediate divestiture of both Chrome and Android, or an Android sale as a fallback if initial remedies fail to restore competition.
The United States v. Microsoft Corp. case in 2001 resulted in a settlement rather than a breakup. The current DOJ proposal seeks structural changes to address Google’s market dominance in search and related technologies.
