In the antitrust trial of the century, the US Justice Department has filed for tech giant Alphabet to separate from its Chrome browser, which is used by around 3.5 billion people globally.
It's also asked the District of Colombia judge to rule that if Google continues with monopolistic misconduct, it could also lose its Android mobile phone operating system as well.
Alphabet’s Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data and search results with rivals and take other measures – including possibly selling Android – to end its monopoly on online search, prosecutors argued to a judge on Wednesday.
In a court filing on Wednesday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) argued that Google, which controls about 90 percent of the online search market, should not be allowed to re-enter the browser market for five years and should sell its Android mobile operating system if other efforts to restore competition fail.
As a result of the ruling in August, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) is proposing that Google be forced to sell off its Chrome browser.
"Google's unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways,"
the DoJ and state antitrust enforcers said in a court filing on Wednesday.
Last month, DoJ already filed court papers saying it was considering enforcing "structural remedies" to prevent Google from using some of its products.
Apart from selling off Chrome, antitrust regulators are reportedly also demanding new measures to be taken by Google related to artificial intelligence (AI) as well as its Android smartphone operating system.
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