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The US Department of Justice on Wednesday urged Google to withdraw its Chrome browser as part of a remedy to break the company’s illegal monopoly on online search, according to the British Daily Mail. Filing in US District Court for the District of Columbia. Google would not be allowed to return to the search market for five years if the remedy proposed by the Justice Department is approved.
Ultimately, it will be up to US District Court Judge Amit Mehta to decide what Google’s final penalty will be, a decision that could fundamentally change one of the world’s largest companies and alter the structure of the Internet as we know it. This phase of the trial is expected to begin sometime in 2025.
Judge Mehta ruled in August that Google had an illegal monopoly for abusing its power over the search business. The judge also took issue with Google’s control over various Internet portals, and the payments the company makes to third parties in order to retain its status as the default search engine.
The Justice Department has proposed other remedies to address the search giant’s monopoly, including Google spinning off its Android mobile operating system. The plaintiffs also argued that the company should be prohibited from entering into third-party exclusionary contracts with browser or phone companies, such as Google’s contract to be the default search engine in all Apple products.
Wednesday’s filing confirms earlier reports that prosecutors were considering pushing Google to spin off Chrome, which controls about 61% of the U.S. browser market. According to For the StatCounter web traffic service.
Google did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
This story develops…
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