According to the Department of Justice (DoJ), “structural requirements” might be part of the actions taken to stop Google from continuing to have a “monopoly” over internet searches.
Google responded by cautioning that US consumers and businesses might experience unforeseen effects as a result of the planned changes.
The move from the DoJ follows a historic court decision from August, which concluded that Google had continued to dominate online search by engaging in illicit activity.
“Remedies that would prevent Google from using products such as Chrome, Play, and Android to advantage Google search and Google search-related products” are under consideration, according to a DoJ court filing.
Vice president of regulatory relations at Google, Lee-Anne Mulholland, called the measures “government overreach” in a blog post.
By November 20th, the DoJ is supposed to provide a more comprehensive set of proposals.
Google will be allowed to submit its own recommended remedies by 20 December.
The August court ruling dealt a serious setback to Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
It followed a ten-week trial during which the prosecution claimed Google had paid companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars annually to guarantee that their search engine was their default one.
The search engine’s utility draws users in, according to Google’s legal team, and the company is spending in improving it for users.
