After its online search business was labelled as a monopoly by a judge, the breakup of Google seemed inevitable.

In a court filing on Wednesday, the US Justice Department and a group of states have recommended to that judge that Google must divest Chrome, citing his earlier ruling that the browser “fortified” the company’s dominance.

The US government’s recommendation for the Chrome divestiture was to “permanently stop Google’s control of this critical search access point and allow rival search engines the ability to access the browser that for many users is a gateway to the internet,” according to the filing.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell more than 6 per cent on Thursday after the court filing.

Google has come out strongly in opposition to the move calling it a “staggering proposal” and said that the DoJ is pursuing a “radical interventionist agenda”.

Google Australia Sydney Office

 

“DOJ’s wildly overbroad proposal goes miles beyond the Court’s decision. It would break a range of Google products — even beyond Search — that people love and find helpful in their everyday lives,” said Kent Walker, the company’s chief legal officer.

The DoJ’s proposals include ending exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to make its search engine the default on their tablets and smartphones.

For its existing agreements, the company would be required to offer smartphone makers and wireless carriers the option to display a choice screen to users.

The Justice Department and states also said that Google should be required to license both its underlying “click and query” data as well as its search results to potential rivals to help them improve their products, according to Bloomberg.

As part of that licence, Google must include all content from its own properties, such as YouTube, that it includes in its own search offering.

A five-member technical committee would be appointed to oversee Google’s compliance with the court order.

 

Google will have the chance to submit its own views next month, with the Justice Department offering additional perspective in March ahead of a planned two-week hearing in April followed by Judge Amit Mehta issuing his final ruling in the second half of next year.

Apart from its recommendations to the judge on Chrome, the antitrust officials stepped back from recommending a similar measure whereby Google would be forced to sell off Android immediately too. But, recognizing Google’s opposition to any such move, they instead proposed instilling a series of limits on the business unit.