More from US v. Google: all the news from the search antitrust showdown
That’s one of the minor changes the Justice Department made to its proposed final judgement in its antitrust case. The DOJ Antitrust Division is still operating under an acting chief as President Donald Trump’s nominee Gail Slater awaits confirmation. But so far, the government made only small tweaks to its asks based on discovery. It’s no longer asking that Google divest AI investments, for example, but that it give a heads up on future ones.
[storage.courtlistener.com]
During a 2025 strategy session on December 18th, Pichai urged Google’s workers not to become “distracted” by global regulatory scrutiny that he said “comes with our size and success,” reports CNBC.
He said “stakes are high” when it comes to Google’s AI tech in 2025, a year in which it faces potentially heavy regulatory action around the world beyond a possible antitrust breakup in the US.
Apple filed papers on Monday to participate in the Department of Justice’s victorious antitrust case against Google, which is now in its penalty phase. Google will need to make significant business changes, such as ending default search deals on devices like iPhones, which Google is OK with.
Apple? Well, its agreement with Google reportedly was worth $20 billion in 2022.
Selling Chrome might not be the most painful part of the DOJ’s antitrust demands for Google.
Alphabet’s top lawyer says the agency’s proposed remedies, which include selling off Chrome, are part of “a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”
If adopted, Kent Walker says the security and privacy “of millions of Americans” would be endangered, trade secrets would be sent to foreign companies, AI progress and innovation would be stymied, and the world as we know it would basically end.
Rumble, the YouTube rival popular with the right for its anti-”cancel culture” approach, is “very interested in acquiring Google Chrome,” CEO Chris Pavlovski says. He was responding to a Bloomberg report that the government is planning to ask a court to require Google to sell the browser as part of the antitrust case against its search business. Rumble notably brought its own antitrust suit against Google years ago.
Prosecutors for the US Department of Justice said in a hearing Friday that the DOJ will outline what Google should do to reverse its search monopoly status by December, reports Reuters.
Judge Amit Mehta is expected to hold hearings in the spring to determine the final remedy.
Finally, a legal ruling on whether TikTok is a real search engine. (It’s not.)