The US government is proposing the historic breakup of Google to end its internet search monopoly

In a filing late Tuesday, federal prosecutors also said the judge could ask the court to open up to competitors the underlying data Google uses to power its ubiquitous search engine and artificial intelligence products.

“For more than a decade, Google has controlled the most popular distribution channels, leaving rivals with little or no incentive to compete for users,” antitrust authorities wrote in the filing. “To fully remedy these damages requires not only ending Google’s control over today’s distribution, but also ensuring that Google cannot control tomorrow’s distribution.”

To that end, the department said it is considering requesting structural changes to stop Google from using products such as the Chrome browser, the Android operating system, AI products or the app store to benefit its search business. Prosecutors also appear to be focusing on Google’s implicit search agreements in the filing, and have said any proposed remedy would seek to limit or prohibit those transactions.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, said in response to the filing that the Justice Department is “already signaling requests that go well beyond the specific legal issues” in the case. “Government crackdown on a fast-moving industry may have unintended negative consequences for American innovation and American consumers.”

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in August that Google’s search engine had illegally exploited its dominance to eliminate competition and stifle innovation. He has set a deadline for a trial on the proposed remedies next spring and plans to issue a decision by August 2025.

Google has already said it plans to appeal Mehta’s decision, but the tech giant must wait until it completes a remedy before doing so. The appeals process could take up to five years, predicts George Hay, a Cornell University law professor who was chief economist of the Justice Department’s antitrust division for most of the 1970s.