The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has softened its orders against Alphabet aimed at disarming Google’s search monopoly, dropping the proposal that would force the tech giant to sell its investments in AI companies. But the DOJ is still calling for Google to divest its Chrome web browser, maintaining the “core components” of the initial remedies proposed in October 2024.
Judge Amit P. Mehta, who ruled Google’s dominance of the search market illegal in August 2024, submitted his final remedies proposal on Friday. The judge reaffirmed that “Google must divest the Chrome browser – an important search access point – to provide an opportunity for a new rival to operate a significant gateway to search the internet, free of Google’s monopoly control.”
The final proposals also prohibit the payments Alphabet makes to tech firms to guarantee Google as the default search engine on user devices. In August the judge heard that these payments totalled more than $26 billion in 2021, creating a monopoly where other search engines “have remained at a persistent competitive disadvantage” without the scale to compete with Google.
The DOJ has therefore ordered Google to end these payments, as Judge Mehta said in Friday’s filing: “The core components of the initial proposal, namely the prohibition on search-related payments to distribution partners that have effectively frozen the ecosystem for over a decade, raised insurmountable barriers to new entry, and created a system dependent on Google’s monopoly payments.”
Feeding the beast
But the October proposals also included warnings against the disruptive impact that AI will have on online search. The DOJ suggested that Alphabet could use its “monopoly power” to feed its AI products, potentially “further entrenching Google’s dominance.” The agency therefore considered forcing Google to withdraw from its AI investments, which include a $3 billion stake in AI startup Anthropic.
However, Friday’s filing dropped the mandatory diversture of Google’s AI investments, instead requiring the company to notify the department of future investments in order to mitigate its influence on the emerging AI space. The DOJ said forced divestment could have “unintended consequences” on competition; Microsoft has invested almost $14 billion in OpenAI, as Anthropic reminded the court in February, suggesting that blocking Google’s investments could risk handing competitive advantage to rival players.
“Evidence gleaned from remedies discovery indicates a risk that prohibiting Google from owning or acquiring any investment or interest in any search or search text ad rival, search distributor, or rival query-based AI product or ads technology could cause unintended consequences in the evolving AI space,” said Friday’s filing. “Plaintiffs are no longer advocating for this specific remedy; however, they continue to be concerned about Google’s potential to use its sizable capital to exercise influence in AI companies. As a result, Plaintiffs included an advance notification provision to permit a review of proposed transactions.”
The dropped remedy could spark concern from search rivals, considering the increasing role of AI in search results. AI-generated summaries already show up in around 30 percent of Google searches, according to a recent study by SEO company Authoritas, and are expected to gain prominence over the next two years; research from Gartner forecasts “traditional search engine volume” to fall 25 percent by 2026. Combined with Google’s search monopoly, these AI investments could risk another web of market dominance to untangle further down the line.
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