Google Says It Won’t Force Gemini on Partners in Antitrust Remedy Proposal

If Google's generative AI Gemini Assistant The chatbot will surpass OpenAI's ChatGPT in popularity in the coming years, but it may have to do so without some of the promotional partnerships that have helped bring Google Search to the forefront of Americans' lives.

In an American federal government court filing FridayGoogle has proposed a series of restrictions that, for three years, would prevent the company from requiring its device makers, browsers and wireless carriers to distribute Gemini to their U.S. users. Google would also give these partners more flexibility in how they set their default search engine for their users.

Google's proposal flies in the face of a call last month by the U.S. Department of Justice for Google not only to loosen its grip on its partners, but also to share more data with its competitors and sell off its Chrome browser business. Business Friday formally rejected the idea of ​​selling any part of their business or providing more information to their competitors. And the proposed restrictions could be interpreted as more restrictive than those sought by the government.

The battle follows a ruling last August by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., who concluded that Google violated federal antitrust laws through deals, it became the default search provider on iOS and other software, often in exchange for sharing ad revenue with partners. The default arrangements helped Google gain and retain users, giving it monopolies in both search and search ads, Mehta found. The search giant was able to raise ad prices without constraint, fueling “dramatic revenue growth” and “remarkably stable operating profits,” Mehta wrote in his ruling.

Mehta must now decide what sanctions Google will face. He has scheduled hearings to begin in April and is expected to issue his decision by next August.

The emergence of ChatGPT, Gemini and other similar chatbots as competitors to traditional search engines has weighed on the court's proceedings. The Justice Department and several state attorneys general involved in the case wanted to ensure that Google was not able to shift its dominance from old-fashioned search to this emerging field.

But even after Mehta's upcoming decision, appeals are expected to follow. It could be years before restrictions on Google come into effect. Investors are therefore optimistic about the prospects of Google and its parent company, Alphabet. The conglomerate's shares have gained more than 37% in 2024, on track to become its eighth-best annual rise since its IPO 20 years ago.

Transfer of dominance

In this year's trial, Google attributed its search dominance to developing an experience users love. The Justice Department argued that users stick to the default settings on their phones and browsers, often Google. The company's proposal Friday emphasized that Google doesn't want to lose these defaults completely. This would, for example, allow Google to guarantee default search status on certain models of Samsung phones in the United States, while temporarily suspending the requirement for everyone to do so.

Google could also still make deals 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 its partners to promote Gemini in order to distribute Search, Chrome or the Google Play app store. And that couldn't stop partners from also working with rival AI companies like OpenAI.