Alphabet Inc.’s Google said the U.S. Justice Department plans to force it to sell its web browser to “extreme” and contradict the law, urging federal court judges to exercise caution so that he doesn’t kill innovation and future investments.
In court documents late Friday, Google responded to the Justice Department’s request and proposed its own remedies. The company said the proposed Chrome sale did not comply with the conduct of the company that the judge considered illegal, which involved exclusive contracts with browsers, smartphone manufacturers and telecom operators.
The company said in its filing that the court “does not recommend extreme remedies.” Google said the remedy for anti-competitive behavior “must be the same type or class as the violation.”
The Justice Department and a group of states asked Judge Amit Mehta last month to order Google to sell its Chrome Web browser, along with some other changes to the company’s business to improve competition in the online search market.
Google said any remedy should allow competing browsers like Apple Inc.’s Safari “has the freedom to trade with search engines they believe are the best for users,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs, in a blog post middle. Mehta found it illegal for Google to pay Apple and others to become the default browser provider.
Mulholland said Google’s proposal will still allow the company to distribute revenue through competing browsers, but also allow multiple defaults on different platforms. If you want to include other Google apps, you can have device manufacturers preload multiple search engines without requiring them to include Chrome and Google Search.
Google’s submission is its first official response since Mehta discovered it illegally monopolizes the online search and advertising market earlier this year. The company said it plans to appeal, but it will not appeal until the case is over.
“If the Justice Department believes that Google invests in Chrome, we are totally anti-competitive about the development of AI, or the way we crawl or develop algorithms, it may bring these cases. No,” Murland wrote.
The judge plans to file a lawsuit in April to decide how to resolve Google’s lack of competition and promises to make a final decision by August 2025.
A spokesman for the Justice Department declined to comment, referring to early documents from the agency in the case.
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