Google flags Chrome sale as ‘unprecedented’ amid US antitrust trial, says ‘don’t think it can be recreated’

Big Tech firm, Google, believes that the company's search engine arm, Chrome, would suffer in anyone else's hands, amid an ongoing trial over market dominance at the Justice Department in the United States, reported the news agency Bloomberg on April 26. 

Parisa Tabriz, the general manager of Google Chrome, at the Washington federal court, said that trying to ‘disentangle’ the firm is ‘unprecedented’ as the company represents 17 years of collaboration between the people of Chrome.

“Trying to disentangle that is unprecedented,” said Tabriz, cited the news agency. “Chrome today represents 17 years of collaboration between the Chrome people,” she said.

As per multiple media reports, the general manager made it clear that the Big Tech firm is being forced to sell its browser Chrome, which provides features like safe browsing mode, a system which notifies users if their passwords are compromised. 

The company also uses shared Google infrastructure, which is not solely within Chrome's purview, reported the agency, citing Tabriz.

“I don’t think it could be recreated,” she said, according to the report.

Google's market dominance

The United States Justice Department has asked Google to sell its Chrome browser and share some of the data it collects to create its search results, according to earlier reports.

Judge Amit Mehta is overseeing the trial on what changes Google should implement to change its business practices after he found that the tech major was illegally monopolising the market.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Justice Department on Monday, April 21, urged a federal Judge (Amit Mehta) to help Google reduce its market dominance in the search engine industry. 

“This court has an opportunity to remedy a monopoly that has controlled the internet for today’s generation and restore competition for decades to come,” he said as per the news report citing Justice Department lawyer David Dahlquist.

The trial is over how Google should face serious consequences for its monopolist conduct, including the ordered sale of its Chrome browser business, termination of agreements which give it a default place on smartphones and other devices, along with the mandate to provide its competitors with the data.

Parisa Tabriz also reportedly mentioned that the Chrome team is working to infuse artificial intelligence (AI) into the browser to make it more ‘agentic’ giving users the automation benefits like those from filling out forms to doing research to shopping, according to a Fortune report.

(LiveMint couldn't independently verify the report.)