The News
The US Justice Department is considering whether to try and break up Google, including by forcing it to divest core parts of its business like the Chrome browser and Android operating system, to combat its online search monopoly.
Google accounts for about 90% of all online search in the US. That industry dominance and other evidence led a judge to rule the company holds an illegal monopoly, siding with the US government — and breaking Google up is a potential remedy, although other changes that don’t affect the company structure may be pursued, too.
The decision will change how Google operates — and how most people use the internet. That transformation already seemed under way: In a separate case, the company was ordered to open up its Android app store to competitors for at least three years, and it is also facing a potential antitrust ruling on its ad business.
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Breaking up Google will be no easy feat…
Breaking up Google may prove particularly difficult. The search giant is “famously a one-product company,” Axios noted, with the vast majority of its revenue dependent on search advertising. The company is also set to appeal any ruling in court, a process that will likely take years, an analyst told Bloomberg. Legal experts told The New York Times that any divestment could be seen as a step too far because the Justice Department would have to clear the high legal bar of proving that “lesser fixes” — like forcing Google to open up its search data, for example — wouldn’t be sufficient remedies to its monopoly.
… And recent precedents are lacking
The US government’s most successful antitrust actions date back decades, The Wall Street Journal wrote, with the most recent perhaps being the 1984 breakup of AT&T, which negotiated a split before a judge even ruled on whether it constituted a monopoly. By contrast, a 2001 attempt to split Microsoft up was found to be an overstep. Overall, there is very little precedent for the court to act on, which could make the decision hold even more weight. “If there is liability and a judge agrees that breakup is appropriate, that will become the new precedent that brings greater legitimacy to the notion of a breakup remedy,” an analyst told the Journal.
Could Big Tech soon turn into ‘Medium Tech’?
The ruling — and the Justice Department’s considerations — demonstrates the lengths the US government is willing to go to rein in Big Tech, the Financial Times’ tech comment editor noted. Google is bearing the brunt of a long-standing antitrust fight that could turn Big Tech into “Medium Tech.” In the process, the internet as we know it could change, Vox wrote, perhaps for the better, if new, more innovative competitors suddenly get room to breathe: “If the door is locked, you can’t get consumers,” an economist told the outlet. “The door isn’t locked anymore. The door is open [to] a whole industry of innovators who have good ideas, and then we would see a change in competition going forward.”