The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is stepping up its fight against Google. Even though a judge already declared the tech giant a monopoly, the government believes the current penalties don’t go far enough. On Wednesday, the DOJ filed a notice to appeal a previous ruling that let Google keep its Chrome browser. A group of US states is also joining this legal push.
This whole battle stems from a major court decision in 2025. Back then, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had crushed its competition to stay at the top of the search market. The DOJ wanted the judge to force Google to sell off Chrome, which is the most popular web browser in the world. They argued that owning Chrome gives Google an unfair advantage because it can push its own search engine on almost everyone.
Judge Mehta didn’t see it that way last year. He rejected the request for a sale, calling it an “overreach.” He wrote in his decision that the government didn’t prove that Google used Chrome specifically to break the law. Instead of breaking up the company, the judge settled for lighter restrictions. He banned Google from making exclusive deals to be the default search engine on mobile devices. He also ordered the company to share some of its valuable search data with smaller competitors.
Unsurprisingly, Google is fighting back too. The company recently filed its own appeal to cancel the restrictions the judge did impose. Google wants to keep its business model intact and argues that its success comes from having a better product, not from bullying others.
The DOJ’s new appeal means this case is far from over. While everyone agrees that Google is a monopoly, the legal system still hasn’t decided what to do about it. The government wants to tear the company apart, while Google wants to keep everything exactly the same. This latest move shows that the US government is willing to fight for years to change how Big Tech operates.
