The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday officially filed a proposal seeking court approval to break up Google’s monopoly on search and detailing wide-reaching changes it believes Google should make to its business, including selling off its popular Chrome browser.

In a document filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the DOJ says, “Google has manipulated its control of Chrome and Android to benefit itself, while sharing monopoly profits under conditions to induce third parties across the ecosystem to help Google maintain its monopolies.”

The DOJ goes on to assert that “Google’s unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways.”

As a result, the DOJ wants to see major changes in the company.

What changes are the DOJ seeking?

The DOJ’s proposal is largely in line with this week’s earlier reporting about what the agency would seek. The major elements are as follows:

• Google would need to sell Chrome: This is the most seismic change. The DOJ says that for many users, Chrome is the gateway to the internet. It’s a gateway that helps Google maintain its dominant position in the search marketplace.
• Google can’t use its products to give preferential search access: This means Google can’t use its Android operating system, YouTube platform, or Gemini AI assistant to bolster its search products by giving them preferential access through such constructs.
• Google would have to limit its Apple deal: Google is currently the default search engine on Apple’s iPhones. The DOJ proposal would put an end to this by limiting Google’s ability to enter into such agreements with third parties.

There are other elements to the DOJ’s proposal, but perhaps the most frightening one to Google is that the DOJ is also leaving open the possibility that Google may have to sell off Android. According to the DOJ, Google uses Android in “myriad obvious and not-so-obvious ways to favor its own search products.” The easiest way to stop that is to force Google to sell off the world’s most popular mobile operating system to another party.

However, the DOJ recognizes that this remedy solution would draw significant objections from Google (probably the biggest understatement in the entire filing). That’s why the DOJ says a softer option is available: via “behavioral remedies that would blunt Google’s ability to use its control of the Android ecosystem to favor” its search products.

However, the DOJ suggests that if those behavior remedies did not work or Google tried to circumvent them, a divestiture of Android would be in the cards.

Google’s strongly worded response

So how has Google reacted to the DOJ’s proposal? About as well as you’d expect. 

In a blog post, Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, called the DOJ’s proposal “staggering” and “wildly overbroad,” and said the “DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.”

“DOJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses,” Walker continued, adding that it would “jeopardize America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most.”

But such a statement is pretty par for the course. Whenever a tech company’s business is under threat from regulators or other government agencies, its first public response is usually to claim that any such forced changes will harm ordinary Americans and small businesses. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t, but any changes will most obviously be detrimental to the trillion-dollar Google.

Google’s real response will come when it files its counterproposals, which Walker says will happen next month.

Alphabet stock shrugs again

You would think a wide-reaching proposal submitted by Department of Justice would roil Google’s parent company, Alphabet (Nasdaq: GOOG), and have a significant impact on its stock price. After all, the DOJ wants Google to sell off Chrome—perhaps leading to a new browser war—and perhaps even sell off Android.

Yet, GOOG stock seems to have once again shrugged at the news. It’s currently down just 0.39% in premarket trading. That’s even less than the minor premarket drop that GOOG stock experienced earlier this week when news of the DOJ’s proposal first leaked.

Why is it down so little? Because nothing is set in stone. The DOJ’s proposal still need to be approved by the court, and there’s no guarantee that all or any of it will be. It simply depends on how well Google can argue against it and what counter-proposals the company puts forth.