The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reportedly aims to place Google under formal federal supervision.
The Washington Post reported Thursday (Nov. 14) and said in a post on social platform X that the move “could subject the technology giant to the regular inspections and other rigorous monitoring that the government imposes on major banks.”
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken steps to place Google under formal federal supervision, a move that could subject the technology giant to the regular inspections and other rigorous monitoring that the government imposes on major banks. https://t.co/HLwpuOYDla
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 14, 2024
Reached by PYMNTS, the CFPB declined to comment on the report.
Google did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.
The report comes as Google faces a United States government attempt to compel the company to break up its core businesses.
The Department of Justice said in an October court filing in its case against Google that “structural remedies” are on the table. This term is often used to describe the breakup of a company to prevent anti-competitive measures, PYMNTS reported Oct. 9.
Per the filing, the U.S. is “considering remedies to address four categories of harms related to Google’s (1) search distribution and revenue sharing, (2) generation and display of search results, (3) advertising scale and monetization, and (4) accumulation and use of data.”
In a statement shared with PYMNTS at the time, Google said: “The DOJ’s radical and sweeping proposals risk hurting consumers, businesses and developers.”
The company added in the statement that “the DOJ’s outline also comes at a time when competition in how people find information is blooming, with all sorts of new entrants emerging and new technologies like [artificial intelligence] transforming the industry.”
It was reported Nov. 6, after the election of President-elect Donald Trump, that the new administration is expected to roll back some of the antitrust policies instituted under President Joe Biden and could abandon the DOJ’s efforts to break up Google.
Trump reportedly said during an event at the Economic Club of Chicago: “If you do that, are you going to destroy the company? What you can do without breaking it up is make sure it’s more fair.”
In another legal challenge faced by Google — this one an antitrust case brought by Epic Games — a federal judge ruled Oct. 7 that the company must make several changes to policies that discourage competition with its Google Play Store.
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