Attorney General Dave Sunday has joined a bipartisan coalition of 38 state Attorneys General and the U.S. Justice Department in proposing a final package of resolutions to end Google’s illegal monopoly over internet search engines and restore competition to the benefit of consumers nationwide.
The resolutions regard Google’s prevalence as the default search engine, most notably on Android and Apple devices. If approved, the proposal would prohibit Google from making payments to those companies to maintain their presence on Android and Apple devices.
The revised Proposed Final Judgment is similar to what the states and the Justice Department offered in November in an initial filing with the same federal judge who, last year, ruled in a landmark decision that Google is maintaining a monopoly in online searches.
“To ‘Google’ is used synonymously with searching for something online, and this coalition strongly believes that is due to monopolistic practices that have gone on for far too long,” Attorney General Sunday said. “Monopolies are bad for consumers, and in this case, the current search engine configuration allows Google to dictate search results, instead of the consumer controlling what they see. We hope this proposal leads to a new standard of diverse search options for consumers who deserve a competitive market.”
The package of solutions proposes a ban on all search-related payments from Google to distribution partners, including Apple and Android partners. Google would also be required to divest Chrome, with the possible divestiture of Android if the initial set of solutions prove less effective than anticipated or if Google fails to comply with the court order.
The coalition would further be entitled to preliminarily review Google’s future financial interests in online search and generative AI competitors for a limited period to ensure Google cannot use the same monopolistic playbook with new technologies. Finally, the order would deny Google of its continuing exclusive control of ill-gotten gains by requiring the company to share targeted portions of its search index, user, and ads data with its competitors for a limited period of time. The revised proposal takes a more refined approach to the sharing of these types of data, accounting for important privacy considerations and protecting national security.
A hearing on the proposed remedies is currently scheduled to begin on April 21 and conclude by May 9.
The coalition of Attorneys General was co-led by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. Joining them are the Attorneys General from Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Colombia, Hawai’i, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Vermont, West Virginia, Wyoming, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
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