They want to separate Android, Play and Chrome from Google

Recently, Google was declared a “monopolist” by a United States District Court, after being accused of violating the country’s antitrust laws. The company used practices that ensured its dominant position as the default search engine on devices and browsers, which ended up raising concerns in the market about fair competition.

This decision could end up bringing significant changes to Google products, including Android, Chrome and Google Play, as the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has presented proposed solutions to address the tech giant’s anti-competitive behavior.

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The Justice Department’s proposals

The DoJ has introduced a new “Proposed Remedies Framework” that aims to correct Google’s anti-competitive practices. This plan involves areas such as search distribution, revenue sharing, generation and display of search results, advertising scale and monetization, and data accumulation and use.

One of the most radical proposals includes preventing Google from using its products, such as Chrome, Play and Android, to give Google Search and related products an advantage. This measure would be an attempt to balance the market and give more space for other search engines to compete fairly.

Additionally, the DoJ suggests that websites can opt out of being used for artificial intelligence training or appearing in Google’s AI products, such as AI roundups in Google Search.

What does the DoJ want to fix?

• Search distribution and revenue sharing: The DoJ claims that over the past decade, Google has controlled the most popular search distribution channels, making competition difficult. The plan includes limiting or prohibiting agreements that guarantee Google the position of default search engine, as well as restricting app pre-installation agreements and revenue sharing.
• Accumulation and use of data: One of Google’s biggest competitive advantages is the amount of data it accumulates through its platforms. The DoJ proposes that Google make its search indexes, data and models available through APIs, allowing other companies to use this information to compete more fairly in the search market.
• Generation and display of search results: The DoJ highlights that search features often depend on content created by third parties, which have little negotiating power with Google. The proposal is that Google be prohibited from using contracts to harm rivals’ access to web content, in addition to allowing websites to choose not to appear in the company’s artificial intelligence products.
• Advertising and Monetization Scale: Google’s dominance in the advertising industry is also under scrutiny. The DoJ’s proposal is that Google be prevented from using its scale to control the search advertising market, in addition to licensing its ad feeds independently of search results.

What’s at stake for Google?

In response to these proposals, Google argued that the DoJ’s actions could harm not only the company, but also consumers, developers and other companies that use its products.

According to them, the company has invested billions of dollars in developing products like Chrome and Android, and separating them from Google could radically change their business models.

Furthermore, they also argued that they offer these products for free and keep the source open, allowing other companies and developers to contribute and use their platforms. The company revealed that few companies would have the capacity or incentive to continue offering these products openly if the separation occurred.

Finally, Google warned that the cost of devices could increase and that the competitiveness of Android and Google Play, in relation to the iPhone and Apple’s App Store, would be harmed.

This means that these products, which are distributed free of charge and widely used on mobile devices, could end up having their business models changed, and this separation of Google’s platforms could end up increasing costs for consumers themselves.

Furthermore, Google Play, which competes directly with Apple’s App Store, could also lose strength, as part of its competitiveness is precisely associated with the Android ecosystem. By separating Android from Google, the platform would lose direct integration with the company’s services and products, which could weaken its market position.

This is just the beginning

The legal battle between Google and the US Department of Justice is far from over. In fact, it’s just the beginning, as Google intends to present a detailed defense against the DoJ’s proposals.

These legal battles and discussions regarding antitrust legislation in the USA have been growing a lot in recent times, mainly because many technology giants are being increasingly charged for their market practices.

In this case, the future of Android, Chrome and other Google products could be very different from what we know today. If the DoJ’s proposals are actually implemented, consumers could end up seeing a significant transformation in the digital platforms they use on a daily basis, with changes ranging from the way we access the internet to the cost of mobile devices and applications.

Fonte: androidauthority