Public Knowledge asked the D.C. Circuit to make Google sell Chrome and to bar it from paying for search distribution, in an amicus brief Tuesday. The group argues that a separately owned Chrome would set privacy rules and decide how search and AI get folded in, pointing to Google's 2025 reversal on blocking third-party cookies, since Google sets the browser's tracking rules and runs the ad business they govern. Judge Amit Mehta refused to order a sale in his September 2025 remedies ruling, requiring Google instead to share search data with qualified rivals and barring exclusive distribution contracts for six years while leaving the payments alone. The Justice Department and the states argued last week that those payments should have been banned, but didn't seek a divestiture.
