US federal judge is expected to decide in the coming days on the problem that plagues both American and European competition authorities for over a decade: what about Google’s monopoly in search.

The Washington Court is expected to rule by Monday to order Google to separate Browser Chrome, following the 2024 ruling that the company was maintaining an illegal monopoly on the search and request of the US Ministry of Justice.

For Brussels, who are considering their own case of Google’s monopoly on the market, a possible mandate by the US court to separate Chrome would be a convenient result, especially because the European Commission is under pressure from the Trump government to stop the imposition of sanctions on large technology companies.

European supporters of Google’s separation estimate that it is much more realistic to have such a decision than the US than from another country. “If such a decision is made, it can only come from the US,” said Christian Kroll, chief executive of Berlin -based ECOSIA search engine.

Given the political climate, it is logical both politically and legally to precede an American decision to split Big Tech, Anne Whit, a teacher at the EDHEC Business School in Lille.

“The Trump government has made it clear that it will defend US companies against any foreign antitrust intervention,” he said. “This brings the European Commission in a very difficult position.”

When EU Competition Commissioner Margrets Vestagger left the possibility of a seraction of Google in the 2023 case, the proposal “shocked the European community”, according to Whit.

Not only did the EU have ever broken up, but it rarely resorted to such extreme measures even when European companies violated the rules, Politico notes.

This does not mean, however, that a separation of Google in Europe is unthinkable. “Europe has long been in this area,” said Marten Peter Sinkel, an academic at the University of Amsterdam, pointing out the 2017 case for Google Shopping as the “first small step” that put the regulatory authorities on the road to more ambitious structural interventions.

The future of Chrome

The forthcoming US court ruling – whether it includes a split of Google or more moderate measures such as the cancellation of billions of dollars for a default search engine with Apple and Samsung – will only mark the beginning of a long process.

Even if the separation is ordered, there may be no final decision due to appeals by 2028. However, some companies – almost all American – have already expressed interest in buying Chrome, one of the most valuable “fillets” on the Internet.

Earlier this month, Startup artificial intelligence Perplexity AI announced that it will offer $ 34.5 billion for the acquisition of Chrome, if the judge adopts the Ministry of Justice’s proposal.

However, there are few potential buyers with financial power to buy Chrome without raising new competition issues, Croll said. “If you sell Chrome to Meta or Openai, sovereignty is simply transferred by a great technology player to another.”

And from all the names that are circulating as possible serious buyers, none are European.

Side effects

There are also voices that say that a forced separation of Chrome can have “serious and destructive” impact on the internet ecosystem.

Such a split would be a “disaster for the web” and investment on the open internet would “collapse”, warned Chris Codepen’s co -founder. Coeer argues that Google’s investments on the internet are not charity, but a financial interest, and capitalism works based on motivation, not kindness.