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Is the DOJ Still Trying to Make Google Sell Chrome? What the 2026 Appeal Says

Google was not ordered to sell Chrome. The district court rejected that remedy in 2025; the DOJ’s July 2026 cross-appeal addresses a payment ban.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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No—not in the July 2026 filing covered here. The court rejected the proposed Chrome breakup in 2025, and the Justice Department’s 2026 cross-appeal challenges the rejection of a payment ban. That is different from renewing a demand that Google sell Chrome.

Why the Chrome-sale headline needs a correction

The U.S. Department of Justice and a group of states sued Google in 2020 over its search business. After a 2023 trial, the district court found Google unlawfully maintained monopolies in general search services and general search text ads, according to the DOJ case page.

In the remedies phase, the plaintiffs sought structural relief, including requiring Google to divest Chrome. On September 2, 2025, the court rejected that proposed breakup and ordered behavioral remedies instead. The Congressional Research Service also describes the court as rejecting immediate Chrome divestiture and a contingent Android divestiture. DOJ’s remedies announcement · CRS overview, September 10, 2025

The DOJ and Google appealed. In its July 28, 2026 response brief and cross-appeal, the DOJ argues that the district court should have imposed a ban on certain payments. The brief recounts the rejected Chrome divestiture proposal; it does not identify a renewed Chrome-sale demand in the cross-appeal. A party’s appellate argument is not a new court ruling. DOJ case docket · DOJ response brief and cross-appeal

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What the court ordered instead

The September 2025 judgment imposed conduct-focused, or behavioral, remedies rather than requiring Google to sell an asset. The DOJ’s summary describes three main areas:

  • Restrictions on certain exclusive distribution arrangements involving Google Search, Chrome, Google Assistant, or Gemini.
  • Sharing certain search-index and user-interaction data with qualifying competitors.
  • Offering search and search-text-ad syndication services to certain competitors.

These are summaries, not a determination that every agreement is covered or that every competitor qualifies. The judgment’s detailed terms control eligibility and scope; consult the DOJ announcement and linked court materials for the operative details.

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Structural relief versus behavioral relief

Type of relief What it means here Status in the search case
Structural Separating or selling an asset, such as Chrome. Plaintiffs requested Chrome divestiture; the district court rejected it in 2025.
Behavioral Rules governing business conduct, such as distribution arrangements, data access, or syndication. The district court ordered behavioral remedies in September 2025.
Appellate argument A party’s request that an appeals court change part of the lower-court outcome. The DOJ’s July 2026 cross-appeal argues for a payment ban; the reviewed filing does not renew the Chrome-sale request.

The distinction matters: a remedy a plaintiff asked for is not necessarily a remedy a judge ordered, and an appeal brief states a party’s position rather than announcing what the appeals court has decided.

What is known about the appeals’ status

The DOJ docket lists compliance-status reports filed on September 17, 2026, after the July cross-appeal. The materials cited here do not establish a final appellate decision on that cross-appeal. The judgment’s remedies and the parties’ appeals therefore should not be conflated: the court’s 2025 order is the remedy described above, while the DOJ’s payment-ban argument remains an appellate position in the cited filing. DOJ case docket

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This is the search case, not Google’s separate ad-tech antitrust case. Developments in that other proceeding do not by themselves show that Chrome divestiture has been revived here.

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What the DOJ’s market-share figure does—and does not—say

The DOJ’s 2025 remedies announcement said Google accounted for approximately 90 percent of U.S. search queries. That is the agency’s stated figure in that announcement, not a new 2026 measurement or an independent estimate. The same announcement quoted the district court’s August 2024 liability opinion: “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” DOJ remedies announcement

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