Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Saturday, December 14, 2024 80° Today's Paper


Top News

Google search monopoly case remedies to come by December

REUTERS/ANNEGRET HILSE/FILE PHOTO
                                A woman passes the logo from the Web search engine provider Google during the digital society festival ‘re:publica’, at the Arena Berlin in Berlin, Germany, in June 2022. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to issue an outline by December on what Alphabet’s Google must do to restore competition after a judge earlier found the company illegally monopolized the market for online search, prosecutors said at a court hearing in Washington today.

REUTERS/ANNEGRET HILSE/FILE PHOTO

A woman passes the logo from the Web search engine provider Google during the digital society festival ‘re:publica’, at the Arena Berlin in Berlin, Germany, in June 2022. The U.S. Department of Justice plans to issue an outline by December on what Alphabet’s Google must do to restore competition after a judge earlier found the company illegally monopolized the market for online search, prosecutors said at a court hearing in Washington today.

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to issue an outline by December on what Alphabet’s Google must do to restore competition after a judge earlier found the company illegally monopolized the market for online search, prosecutors said at a court hearing in Washington today.

Prosecutors did not detail what remedy they will propose, but Justice Department attorney David Dahlquist said it should be comprehensive and take into account how Google plans to integrate artificial intelligence into search.

Since the case was brought, Google has rebranded its Bard AI product to Gemini, Dahlquist said.

“What else are they thinking about? What else is beyond that?” he said at the hearing.

Prosecutors could seek to have Google divest certain business units, such as its Android mobile device operating system, or end billions of dollars in annual payments to smartphone makers and others to ensure that its search engine is the default on devices and browsers.

Google’s attorney John Schmidtlein said at the hearing that the company needs a detailed proposal from prosecutors, and will likely seek information from Microsoft and OpenAI to prepare any counter-argument on AI search.

Google has said it plans to appeal the judge’s ruling.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said he could hold a hearing in the spring and would like to rule by next August.

By participating in online discussions you acknowledge that you have agreed to the Terms of Service. An insightful discussion of ideas and viewpoints is encouraged, but comments must be civil and in good taste, with no personal attacks. If your comments are inappropriate, you may be banned from posting. Report comments if you believe they do not follow our guidelines. Having trouble with comments? Learn more here.