Google break-up on the table in US antitrust case

The US government is weighing up a break-up of Google in an attempt to end its monopoly over much of the internet.

The US Department of Justice has said that it was considering asking a judge to impose “structural requirements” on the tech giant to prevent it from maintaining its dominance on search.

“Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow,” the DoJ said.

Other remedies that could be pursued include forcing Google to share user search data with rivals, or even restrict its use of search results to train AI models.

It follows a court ruling in August that found that Google, which processes 90 per cent of American internet searches, had maintained its “monopolist” position through illegal practices.

Google, which plans to appeal the rulings, said the proposals were “radical” and “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.”

A judge also ruled this week that Google must open its Play app store to greater competition, including by making Android apps available from other stores.

Overall, the government found four areas that Google needed to be targeted for: search distribution and revenue sharing, generation and display of search results, advertising scale and monetisation, and the gathering and use of data.

The DoJ is expected to file a detailed proposal with courts by 20 November, with Google having a chance to propose its own solutions by 20 December.

“A forced break-up of Google would be an unprecedented move and potentially be the first domino to fall in a long line of dominant tech giants,” said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

“The writing has been on the wall as authorities have got tired of the big players commanding too much market share and making it near-on impossible for others to compete.

“Antitrust investigations have resulted in massive fines, but these giants of industry are so cash-rich that they pay the penalty and move on without a blink of the eye.”

However, markets don’t seem too worried about the decisions, with GOogle parent company Alphabet seeing stock prices drop just 1.3 per cent over the last week.

Alphabet’s stock price is still up 19 per cent since the start of 2024.

“This risk has been known for a long time and investors don’t appear to believe a forced break-up will happen, judging by the solid share price performance in recent years,” Mould added.