Google is urging President Trump’s Justice Department to abandon plans to break up its illegal monopoly over online search – and argued that doing so would jeopardize national security.
In November, former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department said in court filings that Google should be required to sell off its Chrome web browser and end its exclusive deals with Apple and other companies to ensure its search engine is enabled by default on most smartphones.
During a meeting last week, officials from Google’s parent company Alphabet asked current DOJ leadership to ease up on its proposed remedies, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.
“We routinely meet with regulators, including with the DOJ to discuss this case,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement. “As we’ve publicly said, we’re concerned the current proposals would harm the American economy and national security.”
Shares of Google parent Alphabet were flat in early trading on Wednesday.
US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled last August that Google is a “monopolist” with an illegal hold over online search, where it controls an approximately 90% share of the market. Mehta will preside over hearings on potential remedies next month, with a final decision expected later this summer.
Google’s chief legal officer Kent Walker outlined the company’s concerns about the Biden DOJ’s proposals in a blog post last November, asserting that a forced selloff of Chrome or the company’s Android operating system would “endanger the security and privacy of millions of Americans.”
“DOJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most,” Walker said at the time.
Gail Slater, an antitrust hawk, is set to be DOJ’s antitrust chief once the confirmation process is complete. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced her nomination last week but the upper chamber has yet to schedule a full vote.
In the meantime, Omeed Assefi is serving in the key DOJ role in an interim capacity. Assefi will reportedly announce the DOJ’s final recommendations on remedies in the Google search case later this week.
The DOJ has a separate pending case accusing Google of maintaining a monopoly over digital advertising technology by controlling platforms on the buy and sell side as well as the marketplace that connects advertisers to publishers.