Breakup looms

Google must sell its Chrome browser

According to a media report, the US Department of Justice is arguing that the Google subsidiary of the US company Alphabet must sell its Chrome internet browser for antitrust reasons.

The ministry will ask the judge in the relevant court case to take such a step, the US news agency Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the plans.

Google has an illegal monopoly
District Judge Amit Mehta ruled at the beginning of August in an antitrust case concerning Alphabet's market power that Google had an illegal monopoly in online searches and the associated advertising, which it was defending with payments worth billions. With this ruling, Mehta paved the way for a follow-up trial, which could result in Alphabet being broken up. Alphabet had announced an appeal against the ruling. The proceedings are regarded as the "trial of the decade" because the USA is accusing a company of forming an illegal monopoly for the first time in a long time.

Lion's share of online advertising
Google controls around 90 percent of the market for Internet searches. In addition, the majority of all smartphones run on the Android operating system. According to the court, the company paid around 26.3 billion dollars (24.9 billion euros) to manufacturers of electronic devices in 2021 to ensure that Google search is set as standard in the internet browsers of these devices. According to estimates, Alphabet thus secured the lion's share of the global 200 billion dollar market for online advertising.