Google may be broken up

After a 10-week trial, a federal court in the US has just ruled that Google violated the law on monopoly in the search field. The US Department of Justice has considered a number of remedies, including a breakup and less drastic measures.

The proposed measures also include forcing the company to share more data with competitors, imposing restrictions on AI development and banning exclusive contracts that promote the company's dominance.

The case centers on Google’s Android, Chrome and AdWords practices, with the company’s exclusive deals with device makers raising concerns among regulators. The Justice Department is particularly concerned about how Google’s search dominance could impact competition in the rapidly developing field of AI.

Previously, Google was accused of illegal actions such as paying Apple, Samsung and Mozilla billions of dollars each year to become the default search engine on phones and web browsers. This action is considered illegal to maintain its dominance in the search field.

Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a federal judge said. Google receives billions of queries every day through those default search terms. It collects huge amounts of user data from such searches and then uses it to improve the quality of its queries, the federal judge said.

Google said the company plans to appeal the court's ruling.