Japan’s antitrust watchdog will reportedly find Google guilty of operating an illegal monopoly over search.
The anticipated ruling, Nikkei reported, comes months after a US court found Google’s search business was an illegal monopoly largely because of the company’s exclusivity contracts with device manufacturers — practices that were also at the heart of Japan’s case.
US prosecutors have pushed for Google to sell its operating system or browser — changes that would undoubtedly hurt the firm’s margins. Japan’s commission is mulling a similarly “firm stance,” Nikkei reported.
Any changes could take years to realize, however: Google is appealing the monopoly charge (a trial date is set for April, 2025), and has also recently proposed a far less damaging set of fixes to address the US ruling, and could do the same in Japan.