America is raising the prospect of breaking up Google just as EU considers ordering the company to split off part of its ads business. The Uni

US talk on Google breakup gives EU political cover to get tough

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2024-10-17 06:00:05

America is raising the prospect of breaking up Google just as EU considers ordering the company to split off part of its ads business.

The United States Justice Department raised the prospect of splitting up Google in an antitrust lawsuit targeting its search service earlier this month, nearly 10 years after the European Parliament ruined Thanksgiving for Googlers by calling for the search giant to be broken up.

For the European Commission, this couldn't have come at a better time: It's in the final stages of an investigation into Google’s advertising technology businesses where it has been touting a breakup order since last year.

“For years it’s been the practical reality that the EU was never going to address a breakup order to an American company when the American agencies themselves were not minded to move in that direction,” said Alec Burnside, a partner at law firm Dechert who's represented companies that have complained about Google.

EU officials risked "a great war of words, a breakdown of good relations, and possibly even some search for retaliatory measures,” he said.