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The Justice Department's proposal to force Google to rein in and even sell off its Chrome browser business may seem like a win for competitors such as Mozilla’s Firefox browser. But the company says the plan risks hurting smaller browsers.
“We strongly urge the Court to consider remedies that improve search competition without harming independent browsers and browser engines,” a Mozilla spokesperson tells PCMag.
Mozilla points to a key but less eye-catching proposal from the DOJ to regulate Google’s search business, which a judge ruled as a monopoly in August. In their recommendations, federal prosecutors urged the court to ban Google from offering "something of value" to third-party companies to make Google the default search engine over their software or devices.
"The proposed remedies are designed to end Google’s unlawful practices and open up the market for rivals and new entrants to emerge," the DOJ told the court. The problem is that Mozilla earns most of its revenue from royalty deals—nearly 86% in 2022—making Google the default Firefox browser search engine.
(Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Image)As a result, Mozilla says the DOJ’s proposal could "unnecessarily impact browser competition,"
"If implemented, the prohibition on search agreements with all browsers regardless of size and business model will negatively impact independent browsers like Firefox and have knock-on effects for an open and accessible internet,” Mozilla says. “As written, the remedies will harm independent browsers without material benefit to search competition.”
Not surprisingly, Google also opposes the DOJ’s recommendations, calling them “extreme,” and a detriment to third-party providers such as Mozilla, “whose businesses depend on charging Google for Search placement.”
“We’re still at the early stages of a long process and many of these demands are clearly far afield from what even the Court’s order contemplated,” Google said on Thursday. “We’ll file our own proposals next month and will make our broader case next year.”
The DOJ proposal would also block the tech giant from paying Apple to make Google Search the default on the Safari browser. In 2021, Google paid a whopping $26.1 billion in search deals to third-party providers, with Apple reportedly receiving about $18 billion, while others such as Samsung, LG, Motorola, Opera, and other wireless carriers received the rest.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the DOJ’s proposal.