The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has doubled down on its Biden-era proposal to force Google to divest its Chrome browser & prohibit Google from paying other companies to make Google the default search engine.

What's Happening

In November 2024, while former President Joe Biden was still in office, the Department of Justice sued Google, accusing the company of holding a monopoly in both the search engine industry and browsers. The DoJ proposed that Google divest their Chrome browser, which dominates the market, and also prohibit them from making deals to make Google the default search engine on platforms like Apple.

Divesting Chrome would mean that Google would no longer have ownership to it.

Google's Defense, DoJ Doubles Down

Google has been fighting back against the proposals, claiming that divesting Chrome would cause a national security risk, and possibly make Chrome less safe for its many users.

After Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election last November, critics of the proposals saw hope that the new incoming administration could dismiss the antitrust lawsuit, and strike down the proposals due to Trump's notably less aggressive policies regarding antitrust.

However, this doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, the Department of Justice under Trump has doubled down on both of the proposals despite Google's warnings. It's unclear just exactly how this case will go, as it is possible the court could rule in Google's favor.

Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia is expected to announce the final decisions this upcoming April. He previously ruled that Google did, in fact, hold a monopoly.