On Friday, the Department of Justice submitted its final remedy proposal in the landmark search antitrust case against Google, continuing its push to force the company to sell Chrome and stop its exclusive search deals with partners like Apple.
With that said, it wasn’t all bad news for Google as the DOJ dropped its request to block the company from investing in AI companies. Instead, they’ve moderated that a bit to require prior notification of any deals. (Clearly, there are ongoing concerns from both the DOJ and state AGs about Google’s ability to use its financial power to dominate AI.) The court will now weigh the revised proposals as the case moves toward a final ruling.
Why This Matters:
Well, obviously, all of this matters. The DOJ’s final remedy proposal could reshape the search advertising industry by forcing Google to divest Chrome. This move would weaken Google’s stranglehold on search traffic, which fuels its dominance in search advertising.
By also banning Google’s exclusive search deals with partners like Apple, the DOJ is seeking to open the market for competitors like Bing, DuckDuckGo, and up-and-coming AI-driven search engines, like Perplexity and SearchGPT. If implemented, these remedies could force advertisers to rethink their search ad strategies entirely, as a more competitive market could lead to new platforms gaining traction.
Experts React:
Some good posts on X about the remedy include:
Our Take:
Forcing Google to sell Chrome is a bold but complicated remedy (see our post on this in November). While the DOJ sees this as a way to weaken Google’s dominance, consumers might not welcome such a change—Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, and a forced sale could create uncertainty around security, updates, and integration with other Google services. If the buyer fails to maintain the same level of performance and innovation, users might suffer, which could ultimately work against the DOJ’s goal of increasing competition.
The biggest question is who could even buy Chrome without creating a new antitrust problem? If a tech giant like Microsoft or Meta acquired it, that would just shift market power from one dominant player to another. A PE firm could step in, but they’d need massive resources to maintain and innovate on the browser. Regulators may push for a smaller competitor to take over, but the reality is that very few companies have the infrastructure to operate a browser at Chrome’s scale. That’s why, even if the DOJ wins its case, executing this remedy without awkward and unintended consequences will be a major challenge.
