US authorities considering breaking up Google – reports

The US Department of Justice is considering breaking up Google, according to reports from Bloomberg, the New York Times and others.

Last week, a federal court in the US ruled the tech giant had broken antitrust law by spending billions on creating an illegal monopoly and becoming the world’s default search engine.

Read more: Google illegally maintained online search monopoly, US court rules

The ruling is seen as the first big win for authorities taking on the dominance of Big Tech.

The Department of Justice’s other options include forcing Alphabet’s Google to share data with competitors and instating measures to prevent it from gaining an unfair advantage in AI products, the reports said, citing people familiar with the matter.

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Breaking off the Android operating system, AdWords, Google’s search ad program, or the Chrome web browser are all options being discussed, according to the reports.

Meta, Amazon and Apple have all had legal action brought against them by antitrust regulators in the past four years for their domination of their markets.

Microsoft had settled with the Department of Justice in 2004 on claims it forced its Internet Explorer Web browser on Windows users.

Google and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.