Things could change for Google in a big way in the near future. Apparently, the U.S. Department of Justice might ask a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business, as reported by CBS News. While it’s still early to make any kind of proclamation about the future of Google, if the company is forced to sell off portions of its business due to being too dominant, it could change the tech landscape as we know it.
Not only might the DOJ make Google sell off pieces, but federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open the data it uses to power its popular search engine and AI products to competitors. Google obviously has some key secrets that make its search engine work (secrets the company stays ahead of with consistent algorithm changes). Having these made public would cause a significant shift in how search rankings work.
Google also has very lucrative deals with companies like Apple and Samsung, which keep its search engine as the default option and allow it to further control the market. Google currently has deals with Samsung to share revenue from the Play Store and with Apple for search traffic on Safari.
The DOJ isn’t happy about these deals and may squash them. It also aims to stop Google from using its products like Chrome, Google Play, and Android to give its Search and related services a competitive advantage. Whether that happens by forcing Google to sell those parts of its business or by limiting how the company can leverage its other products remains to be seen.
“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little-to-no incentive to compete for users,” the antitrust enforcers wrote. “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”
In a response, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland said in response to the filing that the DOJ was “already signaling requests that go far beyond the specific legal issues.”
As you might expect, the Google representative cited “Government overreach” and “negative unintended consequences for American innovation and America’s consumers.” Whether this is a case of overreaching will be determined as more filings and information come out, but it’s certainly something for everyone in the tech industry to keep an eye on.
This is far from Google’s first run-in with the U.S. government, as District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google’s search engine has been illegally exploiting its dominance in August. Between that ruling and the potential for the DOJ to ask a federal judge to force Google to sell parts of its business, it appears that the search giant is in for a fight if it wants to keep operating the way it has been.
