Found guilty of anti-competitive practices in the digital world by the American justice system, Google is preparing to suffer historic sanctions. The future of Chrome would be threatened.
This is a real blow for the American firm. Google, considered too powerful in the digital world, could soon regret its hegemony. Accused last summer of having resorted to illegal practices to ensure its monopoly in online research, the Mountain View firm is under historic sanctions.
The US government plans to ask a judge to force Google to abandon its Chrome browser, according to the latest information from Bloomberg. Too predominant in the search engine market, Chrome would be disloyal to its competitors and risk being dismantled by Google shortly.
Chrome, which represents 90% of the global online search market (even 94% on smartphones), is the source of complaints from many websites. Some of them believe that the giant prevents any possibility of existing on the web, since it monopolizes all the traffic.
A case which reveals fraudulent practices
In fact, the case has been lingering since last summer, when Google was subjected to 10 weeks of trial for its illicit practices. The company was found guilty by Amit Mehta, a federal judge in Washington, who helped shed light on Chrome’s unfair competition in the web world.
The trial revealed in depth the anti-competitive agreements signed with Apple, Samsung and Mozilla, which aimed to propel Chrome as the default search engine. It was also revealed that Google was paying huge sums to mobile manufacturers for the sake of hegemony, to become the browser for almost all smartphones.
Other strategies to dismantle the firm
Demanding the split of Chrome and Google appears to be a major break in the American system, which until now left the web giants alone. In addition to forcing Google to abandon Chrome, authorities could also force the company to disassociate itself from other of its organs. Was mentioned Google Play, application store automatically downloaded on Android phones.
In addition to the resale of Chrome, Google could also face forced measures against its use of artificial intelligence and its Android mobile operating system.
What right of reply does Google have?
Faced with these recent decisions, Google did not fail to react. Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Mulholland, accused the US Department of Justice of “continue to advance a radical agenda that goes well beyond the legal issues in this case […]. “For the government to put its thumb on the scale in this way would harm consumers, developers, and America’s technology leadership just when it needs it most.”according to her.
In order to challenge its sentence and avoid bankruptcy, Google plans to appeal. The measures taken against Google’s unfair hegemony, which should be announced in the summer of 2025, will probably take several years to be implemented.