In August 2024, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a competition lawsuit against Google, finding that Google holds an illegal monopoly in the online search market. The court ruled that Google controls 89.2 % of general search services and 94.9 % on mobile devices. After this ruling, the court asked for several measures to restore competition.
During the remedies phase, the DOJ’s main proposals include forcing Google to sell the Chrome browser—which has over four billion users and about 67 % of the global market—ending Google’s exclusive search deals with Apple and other device makers, and requiring Google to share search data with its competitors. The DOJ says these steps are needed to stop Google from keeping an unfair lead, especially in generative AI.
Google strongly opposes these penalties. It says customers pick Chrome and Google Search by choice, and that selling Chrome would hurt users and the internet as a whole. Google points out it faces strong competition from Meta and Microsoft, and it plans to appeal any decision it disagrees with.
At the appeal hearings, Nick Turley, a product manager for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, said OpenAI would be interested in buying Chrome if the court orders a sale. He explained that Chrome’s large user base and direct access to browsing data are essential for building a smooth AI-powered browser that works well with ChatGPT and other AI services.
Earlier, Turley testified that in summer 2024 OpenAI asked Google for search API access, but Google refused, saying the request was too broad. As a result, ChatGPT now uses Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which Turley says has major quality problems. The DOJ’s plan to require data sharing would speed up ChatGPT’s development by giving it real-time search data.
OpenAI has also thought about making its own browser based on Chromium and has hired several ex-Google engineers for the project. This shows that buying Chrome would not only give OpenAI a market advantage but also create a strong foundation for integrating its AI directly into a browser.
The court is expected to decide on these measures by August 2025, but delays and further appeals could drag the process out for years. If the sale goes through, it could change the browser market and set an example for future antitrust cases against other tech giants. The effects go beyond search—this could reshape how companies access user data and build AI models.
The case might also push to separate the Android operating system if the court finds Google is avoiding other remedies by other means. In that way, the lawsuit’s outcome could change both Google’s structure and the entire digital market over the next decade.
