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The Justice Department on Wednesday said Google should have to sell off its popular Chrome browser as part of a court-ordered fix to its monopolization of the online search market.

美国司法部周三表示,作为法院下令解决谷歌垄断在线搜索市场问题的一部分,谷歌必须出售其广受欢迎的Chrome浏览器。

The request follows the government’s victory this year in an antitrust case against Google and is likely to kick off a heightened legal fight with wide-reaching implications for the tech giant’s core business.

这一要求是在政府今年胜诉谷歌反垄断案之后提出的,很可能会引发一场对这家科技巨头核心业务影响深远的激烈法律斗争。

Government lawyers said competition can only be restored if Google separates its search engine from products it has built to access the internet, such as Chrome and its Android mobile operating system. Chrome controls about two-thirds of the global browser market, according to the website Statcounter. Searches in the Chrome address bar go through Google unless a user changes the settings.

政府律师表示,只有谷歌将其搜索引擎与其开发的上网产品(如Chrome浏览器和安卓手机操作系统)分开,竞争才能恢复。据Statcounter网站称,Chrome浏览器控制着全球约三分之二的浏览器市场。除非用户更改设置,否则在Chrome浏览器地址栏中的搜索默认将通过谷歌进行。

The Justice Department also requested that Google be prevented from giving preferential access to its search engine on devices that use its Android mobile operating system. If Google violated that rule in the future, it would have to divest Android as well under the government’s proposal.

司法部还要求阻止谷歌在使用其安卓移动操作系统的设备上默认使用其搜索引擎。如果谷歌今后违反了这一规定,根据政府的提议,它也必须剥离安卓系统。

Android runs on billions of smartphones from manufacturers such as Samsung, along with Google’s own Pixel devices.

三星等制造商生产的数十亿部智能手机以及谷歌自己的Pixel设备上都运行着安卓系统。

Google would also be forbidden from paying to be the default search engine on any browser, including Chrome under its new owner. Google currently pays Apple tens of billions of dollars a year to be the default on its Safari browser.

谷歌还将被禁止付费成为任何浏览器的默认搜索引擎,包括新东家旗下的Chrome浏览器。目前,谷歌每年向苹果公司支付数百亿美元,以成为其Safari浏览器的默认搜索引擎。

“The remedy must enable and encourage the development of an unfettered search ecosystem that induces entry, competition and innovation as rivals vie to win the business of consumers and advertisers,” the department and over two dozen state plaintiffs wrote.

该部门和二十多个州的原告写道:“补救措施必须能够促进和鼓励不受约束的搜索生态系统的发展,从而在竞争对手争夺消费者和广告商的业务时诱导进入、竞争和创新。”

The government’s proposal also goes after Google’s role in the young artificial-intelligence market, which is starting to displace traditional search. The Justice Department wants the court to compel Google to allow website publishers to opt out of having their data used to train its AI models. Alternatively, the search giant could pay publishers to use their data.

政府的提案还针对谷歌在新生的人工智能市场中扮演的角色,因为人工智能正开始取代传统搜索。司法部希望法院强制谷歌允许网站出版商选择不将其数据用于训练人工智能模型。或者,谷歌可以付钱给出版商,让谷歌利用其数据。

Kent Walker, Google president of global affairs, described the Justice Department’s suggested remedy as a “wildly overbroad proposal” that would “harm Americans and America’s global technology leadership.” He said Google would file its own proposed remedy to the court in December.

谷歌全球事务总裁肯特-沃克认为司法部提出的补救措施是一个“过于宽泛的建议”,将“损害美国人和美国的全球技术领导地位”。他说,谷歌将在12月向法院提交自己的补救建议。

About half of U.S. internet searches go through products where Google has paid to be the default, including Android phones, Apple devices and browsers such as Firefox, according to U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta’s opinion. Another 20% go through Chrome browsers that users have downloaded themselves and default to Google search.

根据美国地区法官阿米特-梅塔的意见,大约一半的美国互联网搜索是通过谷歌付费默认使用的产品进行的,包括安卓手机、苹果设备和火狐等浏览器。另有20%的用户通过自己下载的Chrome浏览器进行搜索,这些浏览器也默认使用谷歌搜索。

Advertisements next to search results accounted for 57% of Google parent Alphabet’s $307 billion of revenue last year.

在谷歌母公司Alphabet去年3070亿美元的收入中,搜索结果旁的广告占了57%。

Mehta will oversee a trial starting in April to decide how to address Google’s antitrust violations. The judge has said he plans to decide by August. Google is expected to appeal his decision. That could delay the impact of a ruling for months or years.

梅塔将监督明年4月份开始的审判,以决定如何处理谷歌的反垄断违法行为。法官表示,他计划在8月前做出裁决。预计谷歌将对他的裁决提出上诉。这可能会使裁决的影响推迟数月或数年。
A drastic proposal 一个大胆的建议

Wednesday’s filing is the capstone of a legal effort by Biden administration antitrust enforcers to dilute the dominance of Google, Apple and Amazon.com. Google was the first of the defendants to get to a courtroom and the proposal to spin off Chrome shows how far the government will go to cut the tech giants down to size.

周三提交的文件是拜登政府反垄断执法人员为削弱谷歌、苹果和亚马逊公司的主导地位而进行的法律努力的顶点。谷歌是第一个出庭的被告,而分拆Chrome浏览器的提案表明,政府将在多大程度上削减科技巨头的规模。

In an opinion 25 years ago, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated a lower court’s order to break up Microsoft. They suggest that remedy was only appropriate when a monopoly had been formed through mergers, as opposed to organically grown.

在25年前的一份意见书中,美国哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院的法官们撤销了下级法院解散微软的命令。他们认为,只有当垄断不是自然成长而是通过兼并形成的,才适合采取这种补救措施。

While the Justice Department will gain a new antitrust chief after President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Republicans have generally supported antitrust action against the company. The department filed the lawsuit in 2020 when Trump was president.

当选总统唐纳德-特朗普上任后,司法部将迎来一位新的反垄断主管,但共和党人普遍支持对该公司采取反垄断行动。司法部于2020年提起诉讼,当时特朗普还是总统。
原创翻译:龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Google’s policy of pre-installing its search engine on Android devices and defaulting Chrome searches to itself have made it nearly impossible for rivals to gain the users and data required to improve their search engines and compete, Mehta ruled earlier this year.

梅塔今年早些时候裁定,谷歌在安卓设备上预装搜索引擎和默认使用Chrome浏览器搜索的政策使竞争对手几乎不可能获得改进搜索引擎和竞争所需的用户和数据。

Search engines typically improve based on the data they gather from searches conducted by users, in a cycle where success leads to higher quality which leads to even more success.

搜索引擎通常会根据从用户搜索中收集到的数据进行改进,在这个循环中,成功会带来更高的质量,而质量又会带来更大的成功。
原创翻译:龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处


Spinning off Chrome and Android would be the most effective way to ensure other search engines get an opportunity to compete, said Fiona Scott Morton, a Yale University economist who served in the Justice Department during the Obama administration. As long as Google controls them, it will have a strong incentive to steer users toward its own search engine, she argued.

曾在奥巴马政府期间任职于司法部的耶鲁大学经济学家菲奥娜-斯科特-莫顿说,分拆Chrome和Android将是确保其他搜索引擎有机会参与竞争的最有效方式。她认为,只要谷歌控制了这两个搜索引擎,它就会有强烈的动机把用户引向自己的搜索引擎。

The Justice Department and the dozens of states that joined the lawsuit went back and forth on potential remedies in recent days. They initially planned to ask for a spinoff of Chrome only if Google failed to comply with limits on how it ties search to its other products.

最近几天,司法部和加入诉讼的数十个州就潜在的补救措施进行了反复讨论。他们最初计划,只有当谷歌不遵守将搜索与其他产品联系起来的限制时,才会要求分拆Chrome浏览器。

But on Wednesday, the plaintiffs decided to seek a sale of Chrome independent of any other conditions, people familiar with the matter said.

但周三,原告决定寻求出售Chrome浏览器,不考虑任何其他条件。
Chrome’s importance to Google Chrome浏览器对谷歌的重要性

Android and Chrome have been central to Google’s fortunes over the past two decades. Google CEO Sundar Pichai helped lead the development of Chrome in 2008 and later oversaw Android after its creator Andy Rubin stepped aside from his leadership role.

过去二十年来,安卓和Chrome浏览器一直是谷歌的核心业务。谷歌首席执行官桑达尔-皮查伊在2008年帮助领导了Chrome浏览器的开发,后来又在安卓系统的创建者安迪-鲁宾卸任领导职务后负责监管安卓系统。

If Google sold Chrome, the new owner could sext a company to be the default search engine, or users might have to choose an option.

如果谷歌出售Chrome浏览器,新的所有者可以选择一家公司作为默认搜索引擎,或者用户必须手动选择一个选项。

As the world’s most popular search engine, Google would likely still get many queries through Chrome, Safari and other browsers if the Justice Department gets its way. But even a small loss could upend an industry in which competitors including Microsoft’s Bing and the independent DuckDuckGo have single-digit market shares.

作为全球最受欢迎的搜索引擎,如果司法部得逞,谷歌可能仍会通过Chrome、Safari和其他浏览器获得大量查询。但即使是很小的损失,也可能会颠覆这个行业,因为在这个行业中,包括微软必应和独立的DuckDuckGo(互联网搜索引擎)在内的竞争对手的市场份额仅为个位数。

DuckDuckGo said queries through its search engine on Chrome rose about 75% in Europe after Google introduced a “choice screen” in the browser in response to the European unx’s Digital Markets Act.

DuckDuckGo表示,在谷歌为响应欧盟《数字市场法案》而在浏览器中引入“浏览器选择屏”后,Chrome浏览器上的搜索引擎查询量在欧洲上升了约75%。

A divestiture of Chrome would also deprive Google of user data that help it deliver targeted advertisements. Google encourages users to sign in when using Chrome, which makes it easier for the company to track their online activity.

剥离Chrome浏览器还将使谷歌失去帮助其发布定向广告的用户数据。谷歌鼓励用户在使用Chrome浏览器时登录,这使该公司更容易跟踪用户的在线活动。

The Justice Department’s proposal asks for Google to have to share its search data with competitors.

司法部的提案要求谷歌必须与竞争对手共享搜索数据。