Attorneys general said to plan antitrust inquiry of Google

More than half of the nation’s state attorneys general are readying an investigation into Google for potential antitrust violations, scheduled to be announced next week, marking an escalaation in U.S. regulators’ efforts to scrutinize Silicon Valley’s largest companies.

A smaller group of those state officials, representing the broader coalition, is expected to unveil the investigation at a news conference Monday in Washington, according to three people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss a law enforcement proceeding on the record and who cautioned that the plans could change.

It is unclear whether some or all of the attorneys general plan to open or announce additional investigations into other tech giants, including Amazon and Facebook, which have faced similar U.S. scrutiny.

Over the past year, regulators around the country have grown increasingly wary regarding the power wielded by Silicon Valley, questioning whether the industry’s access to vast amounts of proprietary data — and finances — allow companies to gobble up rivals and maintain their dominance to the detriment of consumers.

Two federal antitrust agencies have opened investigations targeting the industry broadly, while lawmakers in Congress have grilled executives from Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google about the business practices.

(Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

Outside of the nation’s capital, however, state officials also have started questioning the growing influence of big technology companies. Attorneys general in multiple states have warned that competition investigations could be on the horizon, the Post first reported in March, and states such as Louisiana and Mississippi have sharply criticized Google for its handling of users’ personal information and its algorithms for listing search results. Those states did not respond to requests for comment.

Texas officials have raised similar concerns. They have also said that Google may be violating state consumerprotection laws if political bias at Google resulted in the censorship of conservative viewpoints. A spokesman for the attorney general there also did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the summer, some state attorneys general met privately with officials from the Justice Department, which announced its own broad review into the industry, to discuss their antitrust concerns. The agency’s antitrust leader, Makan Delrahim, later said at a conference in August that the federal government is coordinating with state leaders, which he numbered at more than a dozen, but declined to offer further details about the agency’s plans.

It is unclear whether the Justice Department will join the states at Monday’s news conference, and a spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Google’s services help people every day, create more choice for consumers, and support thousands of jobs and small businesses across the country,” spokesman Jose Castaneda said in a statement. “We continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general, in answering questions about our business and the dynamic technology sector.”

The states’ looming antitrust investigation of Google threatens to saddle the company with years of regulatory scrutiny. The federal government has the most powerful tools at its disposal when it comes to an antitrust investigation, with the potential to break up a business for violating competition laws.

The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission’s broad reviews into the industry could later evolve into more formal investigations of Google and its Silicon Valley peers. Senate lawmakers on Tuesday announced that they’d hold a hearing focused on tech giants that acquire smaller rivals.