U.S. Justice Department Weighs Breakup Of Google

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(RTTNews) - The U.S. Department of Justice said it is considering behavioral and structural remedies for Google LLC, noting that its anticompetitive conduct resulted in interlocking and pernicious harms that present unprecedented complexities. The move indicates that the DOJ was considering a possible breakup of Google as an antitrust remedy, reports said.

The latest recommendations follow a U.S. judge's ruling on August 5 that Google maintains monopolies in the U.S. general search services and U.S. general search text advertising.

The DOJ said it has duty to seek — and the Court has the authority to impose — "an order that not only addresses the harms that already exist as a result of Google's illegal conduct, but also prevents and restrains recurrence of the same offense of illegal monopoly maintenance going forward."

In a latest filing with the U.S. District Court For The District Of Columbia, the DOJ said it was considering remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and related products and features over rivals or new entrants. These include emerging search access points and features, such as artificial intelligence.

It was noted that Google's longstanding control of the Chrome browser, with its preinstalled Google search default, "significantly narrows the available channels of distribution and thus disincentivizes the emergence of new competition."

The DOJ, with the governing legal framework and complex market dynamics in mind, and consistent with the Court's September 18 Order, is currently considering remedies to address four categories of harms. These are related to Google's search distribution and revenue sharing, generation and display of search results, advertising scale and monetization, as well as accumulation and use of data.

The remedies necessary to prevent and restrain monopoly maintenance could include contract requirements and prohibitions, non-discrimination product requirements, data and interoperability requirements, and structural requirements, the department said.

The DOJ also suggested remedies that would, among other things, limit or prohibit default agreements, preinstallation agreements, and other revenue-sharing arrangements related to search and search-related products, potentially with or without the use of a choice screen.

According to the department, fully remedying these harms would end Google's control of distribution today, and ensure Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.