Comment on the DoJ Proposal for Google to Disagree with Its Suppliers: Google’s Search Strategy and Apple’s Implications

The proposal, filed Friday afternoon, says that Google must “promptly and fully divest Chrome, along with any assets or services necessary to successfully complete the divestiture, to a buyer approved by the Plaintiffs in their sole discretion, subject to terms that the Court and Plaintiffs approve.” It also would require Google to stop paying partners for preferential treatment of its search engine.

Some things have been made easier in the department’s proposal. The DOJ supports letting Apple pay for services other than search. It also no longer calls for Google to drop its AI investments — the Times writes that, instead, the DOJ reccomennds requiring the company to “notify federal and state officials before proceeding with investments in AI.”

In its fight to stay in the top of the US search rankings, it has argued that the most important part of its success is the company offering the very best search technology. Consumers can easily change their default search engine, and that they face competition from Microsoft, according to the report.

Are DOJ Spin-offs Powered by the Trump-era Laws? — An Update on the DoJ’s Proposal

Both spin-offs were part of the proposal the DOJ filed last year. But whether it would hold that line under Trump, whom tech companies have plied with money and praise since his election, has been a mystery. The President has stepped back some Biden-era tech regulations on things like AI safety and cryptocurrency, but has also suggested that the threat of regulation can be useful for getting the results he wants.