Google Says It Won’t Force Partners on Twins Antitrust Remedy Offer

If Google’s generative AI Helper of Gemini chatbot will surpass OpenAI’s ChatGPT in popularity in the coming years, it may have to do so without some of the promotional partnerships that helped bring Google search into Americans’ lives.

federal in the United States Court appeal on FridayGoogle has proposed a set of restrictions that would bar the company from requiring device maker, browser and wireless carrier licenses to distribute Gemini to US users for three years. Google will also give those partners more flexibility in setting the default search provider for their users.

Google’s proposal would allow the US Department of Justice to not only reduce Google’s control over partners, but also to share more information with competitors and Get out of the Chrome browser business. Company on Friday was formally rejected the idea of ​​selling any part of its business or handing over more information to competitors. And his proposed restrictions could be interpreted as narrower than the government’s requested restrictions.

Battle found that last August in Washington, D.C., following a ruling by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta Google violated federal antitrust laws through deals, it often became the default search provider on iOS and other software in exchange for sharing advertising revenue with partners. The default arrangements helped Google win and keep users and gave it a monopoly on both search and search advertising, Mehta found. The search giant was able to raise ad prices without restraint, delivering “dramatic revenue growth” and “extraordinarily stable operating profit,” Mehta wrote in his ruling.

Mehta must now decide what penalties Google will face. He has scheduled a hearing to begin in April and is expected to announce his decision next August.

The emergence of ChatGPT, Gemini and similar chatbots as a competitor to traditional search engines rested on the proceedings of the court. The Justice Department and the attorneys general of several states involved in the case wanted to ensure that Google could not transfer its legacy search dominance to this emerging field.

But even after Mehta’s upcoming decision, appeals are expected. Any restrictions on Google could take years to take effect. This has led to pessimism among investors about the prospects for Google and its parent company, Alphabet. The conglomerate’s shares are set to rise more than 37 percent in 2024, its eighth-best annual gain since going public 20 years ago.

Transfer of Advantage

During this year’s test, Google attributed its dominance in search to developing an experience that users love. The Justice Department argued that users stick to the default settings on their phones and browsers — often Google. The company’s offer Friday underscored Google’s reluctance to lose those defaults entirely. This would, for example, allow Google to provide default search status on some Samsung phone models in the US, while temporarily suspending the requirement that they all do so.

Google may also still have deals in place to promote Gemini. Nothing in Google’s proposal would prevent it from paying Samsung to promote Gemini on all its devices. But under the proposed restrictions, Google would not be able to require partners to promote Gemini as a condition of distributing search, Chrome or the Google Play app store. And it can’t stop partners from working with rival AI companies like OpenAI.