The U.S. Department of Justice and Google returned to court Monday to determine penalties in the government's historic antitrust case, with federal prosecutors urging a breakup of Google's Chrome browser unit and restrictions on the company's exclusive distribution deals. Google is warning such measures would stifle innovation, raise national security concerns, and compromise U.S. leadership in the global AI race.
The proceedings follow an August 2023 ruling by Judge Amit Mehta that Google violated antitrust law by maintaining a monopoly over search. Now in the remedies phase, the court will decide what actions Google must take to restore competition.
"We are not here for a Pyrrhic victory. We are here to restore competition," said David Dahlquist, acting deputy director of the DOJ's antitrust civil litigation division, in his opening remarks at the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C.
The DOJ is seeking to unwind Google's default search placement deals with manufacturers such as Apple and Samsung, and to divest Chrome entirely. It also wants to block the company from similar arrangements for emerging AI products like its Gemini chatbot.
On Sunday evening before the trial began, Google published a blog post rejecting the proposals as extreme. DOJ's “sweeping remedy proposals are both unnecessary and harmful," the company stated.
In a follow-up post Monday, Google vice president of regulatory affairs Lee-Anne Mulholland wrote, "That would hold back American innovation at a critical juncture. We're in a fiercely competitive global race with China for the next generation of technology leadership, and Google is at the forefront of American companies making scientific and technological breakthroughs."
She added, "At trial we will show how DOJ's unprecedented proposals go miles beyond the Court's decision, and would hurt America's consumers, economy, and technological leadership."
The government maintains that Google's multibillion-dollar deals to remain the default search engine on smartphones restrict competitors' access to users and entrench its market power.
In court, Google attorney John E. Schmidtlein countered the DOJ's position. The DOJ's proposals ”aim to prop up individual competitors," he said.
Schmidtlein also addressed Google's AI offerings, pushing back against government efforts to preemptively regulate Gemini distribution. "The notion that ChatGPT can't get distribution is absurd. They have more distribution than anyone," he told the court.
Witnesses expected to appear during the three-week trial include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, DuckDuckGo CEO Gabriel Weinberg, and executives from Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Perplexity, an AI-powered search startup, published a blog post Monday supporting broader choice for consumers. "The remedy isn't breakup," the company stated. "Consumers deserve the best products, not just the ones that pay the most for placement."
Judge Mehta is expected to rule on the proposed remedies by August. Google has stated it will appeal.
