Google says it won’t force Gemini partners in antitrust remedy proposal

If Google’s generative AI Gemini’s assistant The chatbot is set to overtake OpenAI’s ChatGPT in popularity in the coming years, and it may have to do so without some of the promotional partnerships that have helped push Google Search front and center in Americans’ lives.

In American federalism Lawsuit filed FridayGoogle proposed a series of restrictions that would bar the company for three years from requiring device and browser manufacturers and wireless licensors to distribute Gemini to their users in the United States. Google will also give these partners more flexibility in how they set the default search provider for their users.

Google’s proposal runs counter to the US Justice Department’s call last month for Google not only to loosen its grip on partners, but also to share more data with competitors and… Divestiture of its Chrome browser business. Company on Friday Officially rejected The idea of ​​selling any part of its business or handing over more information to competitors. The proposed restrictions could be interpreted as narrower than those sought by the government.

The fight follows a ruling last August by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., who found that Google violated federal antitrust laws Through deals, it has struck to be the default search provider on iOS and other software often in exchange for sharing ad revenue with partners. Mehta found that default rankings helped Google acquire and retain users, giving it monopolies in both search and search advertising. The search giant was able to increase ad prices without restrictions, resulting in “significant revenue growth” and “remarkably stable operating profits,” Mehta wrote in his ruling.

Now, Mehta must decide what penalties Google will face. Hearings are scheduled to begin in April, and his decision is expected to be issued by next August.

The emergence of ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar chatbots as competitors to traditional search engines has clouded the court proceedings. The Justice Department and several prosecutors involved in the case wanted to make sure Google couldn’t transfer its dominance in old-school search to this emerging field.

But even after Mehta’s next ruling, appeals are expected to follow. It could be years before any restrictions on Google take effect. This has left investors optimistic about the prospects of Google and its parent company Alphabet. The group’s shares rose more than 37% in 2024, their eighth-best annual increase since going public 20 years ago.

Transfer of dominance

During this year’s experience, Google attributed its dominance in search to developing an experience that users like. Users stick to the default setting on their phones and browsers, which is often Google, the Justice Department said. The company’s proposal on Friday stressed that Google does not want to lose these default settings entirely. This would, for example, allow Google to lock down the default search status on some Samsung phone models in the US while temporarily suspending the requirement for all such phones to do so.

Google can also still come up with deals to promote Gemini. There’s nothing in Google’s proposal that would prevent it from paying Samsung to promote Gemini on all of its devices. But under the proposed restrictions, Google would not be able to require partners to promote Gemini as a condition of being able to distribute Search, Chrome, or the Google Play app store. It will not be able to prevent partners from also working with competing AI companies such as OpenAI.