DOJ to recommend Google sell off its Chrome browser: Report

The judge will also recommend new data licensing frameworks, alongside more options for publishers to prevent content from being used by Google’s AI products.

In a separate case earlier this year, judge Mehta ruled that Google illegally maintained a search monopoly, saying  “[It] is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly."

The changes required of Google, yet to be confirmed, will be addressed in a two-week hearing in April next year, ahead of a final ruling in August 2025. A lengthy appeal process is expected. 

Google warns of "unintended consequences" for businesses and puts forward "open source" credentials

Performance Marketing World reached out to Google for a response to the report. A Google spokesperson referred its October statement on the DoJ antitrust trial, which outlined a series of "unintended consequences” from the government "pursuing a sweeping agenda that will impact numerous industries and products."

Among those risks, Google highlighted how forcing Google to share search queries, clicks, and results with competitors risks user privacy and security and that "hampering Google’s AI tools risks holding back American innovation at a critical moment."

Referring explicitly to a potential Chrome spin off, Google said: "Chrome is a secure, fast, and free browser and its open-source code provides the backbone for numerous competing browsers...because both Chrome and Android help people access the web and use our products, we offer them (and their underlying code) for free.

"Few companies would have the ability or incentive to keep them open source, or to invest in them at the same level we do," the Google statement continued. "Make no mistake: Breaking them off would change their business models, raise the cost of devices, and undermine Android and Google Play in their robust competition with Apple’s iPhone and App Store."

This article first appeared on Performance Marketing World.