U.S. Regulators Seek to Force Google to Sell Chrome Browser

U.S. prosecutors argued that Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) should not be allowed to re-enter the browser market for five years as part of a list of requests submitted to a judge to divest its Google Chrome browser and to end Google’s search monopoly.

The U.S. Department of Justice and a coalition of states are asking U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to terminate the special agreements that Google and other device vendors pay billions of dollars annually to maintain as the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.

Such changes would essentially result in Google being subject to high levels of regulation for the next 10 years and would be overseen by the same Washington federal court that ruled the company has established an illegal monopoly in online search and related advertising. Google controls approximately 90% of the online search market and 95% of the search market on smartphones.