The federal government, along with several states, have officially asked a federal court to force Google to sell its web browser, Chrome, due to alleged monopolistic activities by the company. The current filing comes off of a ruling from August in which Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google had an illegal monopoly over online searches. As part of his ruling, Judge Mehta asked the government to propose solutions, which they have.
In addition to the forced sale of Chrome, the Justice Department has proposed forcing Google to either sell its smartphone operating system, Android, or else be prevented from making the use of Google’s services on phones that run on the OS. Further, the government is asking the court to prohibit agreements between Google and Apple (and others) where Google pays to make it the default search engine on the smartphones’ browsers.
As part of an overall attempt to crack down on what it sees as monopolistic behaviors by large tech companies, the Justice Department argued that Google effectively locked out its rivals by paying $26.3 Billion to Apple, Mozilla, Samsung, and others so that it would be the default search engine that appears in most smartphones, giving it an unfair advantage with regards to search traffic. Google argued it was not more successful because of such tactics, but it beat out competitors such as Bing or DuckDuckGo simply because it is a better engine.
A decision is not expected until next summer.
If Google and other big tech companies are broken up, sadly, layoffs may be likely. Outside Legal Counsel LLP can assist employees of all levels navigate their employment environments, prepare for the worst, and negotiate severance when the time comes. Reach out to us for a consultation.
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