Cyriel Ruers was a guest on BNR Nieuwsradio to talk about the possible forced sale of internet browser Chrome by Google. The US Department of Justice wants to achieve this through a court application. In August, a landmark decision ruled that Google had illegally established a monopoly on online search engines. The Department sees this follow-up step as necessary to combat the maintenance of the illegal monopoly. However, Google claims that the ministry is pursuing “a radical agenda” and that the request goes beyond the legal issues in the case against the company. Cyriel addressed this in the broadcast:
“One can imagine that the U.S. government hopes that if the Chrome browser is cut off from Google, and thus also from Google search, there might be an incentive for the new owner of Chrome to give other search engines space within that browser as well.”
In the broadcast, Cyriel also addressed U.S. precedents in which companies have been mandatorily unbundled under competition law, such as Standard Oil in 1911 and AT&T in 1984.
The broadcast can be listened to here.
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