Justice Department’s Plan for Google’s Competition Restoration

By Jody Godoy

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to issue an outline by December on what Alphabet’s Google must do to restore competition after a judge found the company illegally monopolized the online search market, as revealed during a court hearing in Washington on Friday.

Prosecutors did not specify the remedies they intend to propose, but Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist mentioned that the solution should be comprehensive and consider Google’s integration of artificial intelligence into search.

Since the lawsuit was filed, Google has rebranded its Bard AI product to Gemini, according to Dahlquist. “What else are they thinking about? What else is beyond that?” he remarked during the hearing.

The DOJ may consider actions such as forcing Google to divest certain business units like its Android operating system or ending substantial annual payments to smartphone manufacturers to maintain its search engine as the default choice on devices and browsers.

Google’s attorney, John Schmidtlein, stated that the company requires a detailed proposal from prosecutors and is likely to seek information from Microsoft and OpenAI in preparation for any counterarguments regarding AI search.

Google has expressed its intention to appeal the judge’s ruling.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta indicated he might hold a hearing in the spring and aims to deliver a ruling by next August.