Google is staring at the possibility of it being subject to the biggest forced breakup of a US company since AT&T was dismantled in 1984.

Last year, a US federal judge ruled that Google had illegally monopolised the search market.

Judge Amit Mehta found that the billions Google pays to other companies including the likes of Apple and Samsung to make its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers effectively blocks competitors from succeeding in the market.

As a remedy, the previous Biden administration pushed for Google to sell its Chrome web browser and also called for an end to the billions of dollars in exclusivity payments to companies.

Last week, representatives of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, met with President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to get the government to back away from forcing a breakup of Google, reported Bloomberg.

During their meeting, Alphabet’s representatives argued that Google is critical to the US economy and national security.

Hearings are scheduled for next month, following which the judge is set to rule on how Google must proceed.

Google Chrome

 

“We routinely meet with regulators, including with the DOJ to discuss this case,” Peter Schottenfels, a Google spokesperson, said in a statement. “As we’ve publicly said, we’re concerned the current proposals would harm the American economy and national security.”

Last year, while the Biden administration was still in office but had already lost the general elections, Kent Walker, Google’s chief legal officer, said that Biden’s DOJ was pursuing a “radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”

 

Beyond the US, American tech companies including Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet are also being scrutinised by regulators in Europe. The Trump administration has firmly batted in the corner of these American companies doing business in Europe and have likened any regulatory action on them to tariffs being imposed on those companies.

US Vice President JD Vance recently urged EU regulators to back off from their aggressive crackdown on US tech giants. In a statement late last month, the White House cited two EU laws, the Europe Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act saying, “America’s economy will not be a source of revenue for countries that have failed to cultivate economic success of their own.”

Alphabet is hoping that the Trump administration will have a similarly sympathetic view to its business model in the US.