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In a sign that President Trump is following the Biden administration’s lead in reining in Google, the Justice Department on Friday reiterated its demand that a court break up the search giant.
The request followed a landmark ruling last year by Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that found Google had illegally maintained a monopoly in online search by paying web browsers and smartphone manufacturers to feature its search engine. The judge is scheduled to hear arguments on proposed solutions from both the government and Google in April.
Under the Biden administration last year, the Justice Department and a group of states asked Judge Mehta in a preliminary filing to force Google to sell its popular web browser, Chrome, among other remedies. The department’s lawyers on Friday reiterated that demand, which could reshape internet competition.
“Google’s illegal conduct has created an economic goliath, one that wreaks havoc over the marketplace to ensure that — no matter what occurs — Google always wins,” the government said in its Friday filing. “The American people thus are forced to accept the unbridled demands and shifting, ideological preferences of an economic leviathan in return for a search engine the public may enjoy.”
Google, which says it intends to ultimately appeal the judge’s ruling in the case, also filed its own final proposal on Friday, maintaining its position that the company shouldn’t need to change much to address the judge’s concerns.
The Justice Department’s decision to stick with its sweeping proposal to fundamentally alter the $2 trillion company’s business is one of the first signals from the new administration on how it may approach tech regulation. The requests, the most significant remedies proposed in a tech monopoly case since the Justice Department asked to break up Microsoft in 2000, could presage how Mr. Trump’s appointees will handle a string of other antitrust cases that challenge the dominance of tech behemoths.
The Justice Department has also sued Google over its dominance in advertising technology, a case awaiting a ruling, as well as Apple over claims that its tightly knit system of devices and software makes it challenging for consumers to leave. A Federal Trade Commission case against Meta over claims that Meta snuffed out competition when it bought Instagram and WhatsApp is scheduled to go to trial in April. The agency has also sued Amazon, accusing it of illegally protecting a monopoly in online retail.
The tech industry is closely watching Mr. Trump’s choices to lead those agencies as it tries to determine his approach to regulation. The antitrust cases against the tech giants stem from investigations that began during Mr. Trump’s first term.
The antitrust division of the Justice Department filed a proposal on Friday that would force Google to sell its Chrome browser, as well as to make changes to its advertising and search practices, to address the concerns of the judge who has ruled that the company has illegally maintained a monopoly in online search.
The company had urged the judge to take a narrower approach, asking that it be allowed to continue paying other companies to give its search engine prime placement in web browsers and on smartphones. But it said those agreements should be less restrictive than in the past and allow other search engines to compete for prime placement on phones and browsers. In addition, browser manufacturers like Apple and Mozilla should be allowed to change their default search engines at least every 12 months, the company said.
A Google spokesman, Peter Schottenfels, added in a statement that the government’s proposals would “harm America’s consumers, economy and national security.”
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