The U.S. Department of Justice may attempt to force Google LLC to divest its Chrome browser under a potential antitrust lawsuit, according to a report published by Politico Saturday.

Reports of an antitrust lawsuit against Google have been ongoing for months. A report Sept. 3 said it could happen the same month (it didn’t), and another report Sept. 21 said likewise. Yet another report Sept. 30 said the filing could be coming in the following week and yet still there are no formal antitrust charges against Google.

Politico said the investigation from the Justice Department, along with state prosecutors — 50 states have been on board with a potential antitrust lawsuit since September 2019 — is not only looking at forcing Google to divest Chrome but also parts of its advertising business. The proposal is claimed to have been discussed on Friday, Oct. 9, according to Politico’s sources.

The report also said the antitrust lawsuit could be filed “in the coming weeks” and could pave the way the way for the first court-ordered breakup of a U.S. company in decades. Discussions on how to resolve Google’s dominance in the online advertising market as described as “ongoing” with no final decisions made.

Justice is also said to be considering a separate antitrust suit against Google that would accuse the company of abusing its commanding position in the online search market, “which the department could file as soon as next week.”

It’s easy to be skeptical at this point when it comes to predictions on timing, but that said, an antitrust lawsuit against Google is still a strong possibility. If it does happen, it will be a major event in a year that has been dominated by COVID-19.

The last major antitrust action against a company was the Department of Justice versus Microsoft Corp. Forcing Google to divest its Chrome browser could be argued as history repeating itself. Microsoft was targeted because it forced people to use Internet Explorer to prevent competition from Netscape.

The Microsoft antitrust lawsuit was partially settled in 2002, but formally it wasn’t fully settled until 2011, 21 years after it started. An antitrust lawsuit against Google has the potential of lasting years as well.

The targeting of Chrome strikes many observers as odd. At no point has Google forced people to use Chrome. It’s not preinstalled as Internet Explorer once was on Windows. According to Statcounter, it has a 66% market share as of September, the market leader apparently by user choice.

Although there could be grounds to argue Google breaches antitrust laws, particularly in online advertising, targeting Chrome makes no clear sense. Targeting Google search, likewise, has similar arguments. Google dominates search because it appears to have the best results, which explains why it has become a verb.

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