According to Bloomberg, Breaking up the tech giant is just one – and most radical – option for reducing domination Google. Others include forcing the company to share data with competitors and mechanisms to prevent gaining an unfair advantage in the area. artificial intelligence.
The Federal Public Ministry will also request a ban on the execution of exclusivity contracts signed by Google, among others, with Apple to ensure that its search engine is the default option for users.
>>> Praca.Wirtualnemedia.pl – thousands of media and marketing ads
Such agreements were one reason why last week a federal court in Washington, in a landmark ruling, found Google guilty of illegally using and maintaining a monopoly position in the search engine and online advertising markets, ruling, among other things, that it harmed consumers and stifled innovation.
“Google is a monopoly and has acted like a monopoly to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in the ruling, commenting: “This is a historic victory for the American people.”
The ruling is the first antitrust ruling against Google in decades, US media reported. Google plans to appeal the ruling. “This ruling confirms that Google offers the best search engine, but it also indicates that we should not be able to make it readily available,” said Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs.
Will Google have to sell Android or Chrome?
The court still needs to decide on the sentence and appeals. The US Department of Justice, which along with several state attorneys general has filed a lawsuit against Google, has until September 4 to present its proposed remedies, with the hearing set to take place on September 6.
According to the New York Times, among the possibilities considered by federal prosecutors is forcing Google to sell part of the company responsible for the Android operating system or the Chrome browser. Such a scenario would not be the first case in the history of antitrust lawsuits. In the last case of such importance – against Microsoft, 20 years ago – the court initially ordered the company to sell part of its empire, although an appeals court overturned the decision. However, as the “NYT” notes, this decision still had long-term effects, reducing the company’s dominance and allowing the development of competitive companies – such as Google.
READ ALSO: Google showed off AI-powered Pixel 9 smartphones
How much does the owner of Google earn?
In the second quarter of 2024, Google parent Alphabet matched its record net income of $23.6 billion. The company’s revenue increased 14% to $84.74 billion.
Quarterly advertising revenue totaled $64.62 billion, up 11.1 percent from more than a year ago. This was driven by increases in advertising revenue from Google’s search engine and related services (from $42.63 billion to $48.51 billion) and YouTube (from $7.66 billion to $8.66 billion). Revenue from Google’s advertising network declined slightly, from $7.85 billion to $7.44 billion.