This year, a US court ruled that Google operates an illegal monopoly in the search engine segment. Since then, the DOJ has offered a number of potential remedies, including selling Chrome and eliminating exclusivity deals with other companies and browser developers. In line with the latter, Google has offered its own proposal to resolve its antitrust situation in the US.
Google will not accept the monopoly ruling without a fight. The Mountain View giant has already confirmed its intentions to appeal it in the near future. However, it must have all bases covered, especially in such a sensitive matter. That’s why Google has been developing its own proposal for remedies to the court.
Google proposes to ease exclusivity deals with third parties to resolve its antitrust situation in the US
The DOJ’s list of proposals included abandoning Google Search exclusivity deals. Google often reaches agreements with browser developers or phone companies to set its search engine by default, for example. However, such a move could backfire on smaller browser developers. Many of them get a large portion of their funding from deals with Google, and losing them would prevent them from innovating and developing new features.
It appears that the firm has taken that DOJ proposal and given it a twist. Google’s proposal to resolve its antitrust situation in the US also contemplates ending exclusivity deals related to its services and apps with larger companies. In other words, the proposed remedy would affect deals with names like Apple and even Mozilla.
According to reports, Google paid Apple $20 billion to make Google the default search engine for Safari in 2022. On the other hand, Mozilla receives a large portion of its revenue from Google. The proposal also mentions eliminating exclusivity deals with Android phone makers and mobile carriers. Basically, Google would stop paying them for integrating its search engine by default and giving prominence to its suite of services.
Proposal valid for three years, impacts key services but maintains funding for small browsers
Google’s proposal mentions a validity period of three years. The ban on exclusivity deals would affect services such as Chrome, Search, Google Play Store, Google Assistant, and Gemini. On the other hand, it seems that Google has considered the difficult position in which the original proposal from the DOJ would put smaller browsers. Therefore, theirs still permits deals for Google Search to be set as the default search engine for browsers. However, each platform or developer will have a separate deal, which will be reviewed annually.
Another of the DOJ proposals mentioned the possibility of Google sharing its search data with third parties. This seems quite difficult to achieve and something that the company would not agree to. In fact, Google’s proposal does not even mention anything similar. After all, in today’s tech industry, search or usage data is extremely valuable. The firm uses it to serve personalized ads and train its AI platforms, for example.
Lastly, Google will file a revised proposal on March 7, 2025, while the appeal to the antitrust case in the US will begin in April. So, there’s still a lot of time to wait.
