Google Might Be Forced to Sell Chrome Browser by the US Government: Report

Oct. 13, 2020

As part of their plans to cut down the massive tech behemoths to size, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) and multiple State Attorneys General in the country are reportedly investigatingGooglefor possible antitrust violations. They are also apparently looking into the legalities of whether they can force the company to sell off itshyper-dominant Chrome web-browserthat has around 70% of the global browser market share on desktops.

If the agencies do go through with their plan, it would be the first time that the US government would have ordered the break-up of a US company in decades. The DoJ is also reportedly preparing an antitrust suit accusing Google of abusing its search dominance to hurt smaller competitors. According toPolitico, the agency could file the lawsuit as early as next week.

The news comes days after the US House Judiciary Committee’s Democratic leadershippublished a scathing reportabout the state of the tech sector in the country, alleging that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have systematically abused their near-monopolistic powers in their respective sectors and demanded sweeping changes in the structure of these companies, including thebreaking up of their businesses and making it more difficult to acquire smaller rivalsgoing forward.

Antitrust investigationshave become a part of life for Googleover the years, having beensubjected to various probesforalleged abuse of its dominancein not only the web browser market but also search and Android. In fact, only last week, reports suggested that the company is being investigated the the Competition Commission of India (CCI) forpossibly abusing its Android dominanceto hurt competitors in the smart TV space through a complex set of deals and restrictions.

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