The US government is plotting a break-up of Google in an attempt to disrupt the US tech giant’s stranglehold on the online search market.
The Department of Justice confirmed it was considering a move to force Alphabet, Google’s parent company, to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser or Android operating system.
It comes after Judge Amit Mehta of the US district court for the District of Columbia ruled in August that Google had unfairly blocked rivals by paying $26bn to become the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.
The Justice Department said: “Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow.”
Google, which has more than 90pc of the market share for global internet searches, said it planned to appeal.
The company said in a corporate blog post that the proposals were “radical” and said they “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.”
More to follow.