Alphabet’s Google met with President Donald Trump’s government last week and urged them to back away from a push to interrupt up the search engine company, in accordance with an individual aware of the matter.
The Justice Department is currently pursuing two anti-monopoly cases against Google – one over search and one other over promoting technology.
“We routinely meet with regulators, including with the DOJ to debate this case. As we’ve publicly said, we’re concerned the present proposals would harm the American economy and national security,” a Google spokesperson said.
The DOJ didn’t immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment.
The department has laid out potential remedies within the search case, including making Google divest parts of its business similar to the Chrome Web browser and ending agreements that make it the default search engine on devices like Apple’s iPhone.
The trial over which of the remedies are appropriate is scheduled to happen in April, with a final ruling expected in August.
President Trump is anticipated to dial back on a few of the antitrust policies pursued under the previous President Joe Biden’s administration, potentially including a bid to interrupt up Google over its dominance in online search, industry experts have said.
