03:39 PM EST, 11/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google ( GOOG ) unit said Thursday that the US Department of Justice's latest proposals, including pushing the company to sell the Chrome web browser, would "harm" consumers.

In August, a federal judge ruled that the company operated an illegal monopoly and violated US antitrust laws by spending tens of billions of dollars to secure exclusive contracts for making its search engine default on smartphones and web browsers.

Google ( GOOG ) must sell its Chrome browser and possibly the Android operating system, and take other steps to end its online search monopoly that it has maintained through "anticompetitive practices," the Justice Department and a group of states said in a Wednesday court filing.

"Google's ( GOOG ) unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways," the Justice Department said in its initial proposed final judgment.

The judgement provides that Google ( GOOG ) is "prohibited from owning not only a browser -- following its divestiture of Chrome, it may not re-enter the browser market for five years -- but also from owning or acquiring any investment or interest in any search or search text ad rival, search distributor, or rival query-based (artificial intelligence) product or ads technology."

The proposal also seeks to prohibit Google ( GOOG ) from offering Apple ( AAPL ) "anything of value for any form of default, placement, or pre-installation distribution related to general search or a search access point," according to the filing.

Alphabet's class A and C shares were down about 5% each in Thursday late-afternoon trade.

The proposed remedies will be in place for 10 years, with some exceptions, the DOJ said. The plaintiffs will file a revised proposed final judgment March 7, the filing showed.

The company called the DOJ's proposals "staggering."

"(The) DOJ had a chance to propose remedies related to the issue in this case: search distribution agreements with Apple ( AAPL ), Mozilla, smartphone (original equipment manufacturers), and wireless carriers," Alphabet and Google ( GOOG ) Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker said in a Thursday blog post. "Instead, (the) DOJ chose to push a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans and America's global technology leadership."

The DOJ's proposals would require, among other things, disclosure to unknown foreign and domestic companies of the company's search results, Walker said.

"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," Walker wrote. The company will file its own proposals in December and make its "broader case" in 2025, he said.

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