The recent ruling that declared Google a monopoly has triggered further legal action from the US Department of Justice. The agency intends to cross-appeal a previous decision that denied its request for Google to divest its Chrome browser, which was part of its broader antitrust case against the tech company.
Judge Amit Mehta ruled last fall that the Justice Department overstepped by seeking forced divestiture, stating that Google did not leverage the browser to enforce illegal practices. However, he imposed other limitations on Google's operations, including the cessation of exclusive service agreements and mandated sharing of specific search data with competitors.
Accompanying the DOJ in this appeal are a coalition of states aiming for stricter penalties for Google's antitrust violations. In response, Google has initiated its own appeal concerning the judge's restrictions, seeking to mitigate potential penalties imposed by the Justice Department.