Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Antitrust inquiry targets Google
Facebook also faces scrutiny in another investigative action
WASHINGTON — Forty-eight states, led by Texas, and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico announced an investigation into Google’s “potential monopolistic behavior.”
The Monday announcement closely followed one from a separate group of states Friday that disclosed an investigation into Facebook’s market dominance.
The two probes widen the antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies beyond sweeping federal and congressional investigations and enforcement action by European regulators.
Nebraska attorney general Doug Peterson, a Republican, said at a news conference held in Washington that 50 attorneys general joining together sends a “strong message to Google.”
California and Alabama are not part of the investigation.
Tara Gallegos, a spokeswoman for California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, declined to confirm or deny any state investigation and would not comment on the announcement by the other states.
Mike Lewis, a spokesman for Alabama Attorney General Steve
Marshall, also said the state’s legal team had no comment on the probe.
The news conference featured a dozen Republican attorneys general plus the Democratic attorney general of Washington, D.C.
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has a market value of more than $820 billion and controls so many facets of the internet that it’s impossible to surf the web for long without running into at least one of its services.
Google’s dominance in online search and advertising enables it to target millions of consumers for their personal data.
Google expects the state authorities will ask the company about past similar investigations in the U.S. and internationally, senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker wrote in a blog post Friday.
Critics often point to Google’s 2007 acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick as pivotal to its advertising dominance. Europe’ s anti trust regulators slapped Google with a $1.7 billion fine in March for unfairly inserting exclusivity clauses into contracts with advertisers, disadvantaging rivals in the online ad business.
One outcome antitrust regulators might explore is forcing Google to spin off search as a separate company, experts say.
Regulators also could focus on areas such as Google’s popular video site
YouTube, an acquisition Google scored in 2006.
Joining Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, in the investigation are the attorneys general of almost all U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Google has long argued that although its businesses are large, they are useful and beneficial to consumers.
“Google is one of America’s top spenders on research and development, making investments that spur innovation,” Walker wrote. “Things that were science fiction a few years ago are now free for everyone — translating any language instantaneously, learning about objects by pointing your phone, getting an answer to pretty much any question you might have.”
But federal and state regulators and policymakers are growing more concerned not just with the company’s impact on ordinary internet users, but also on smaller companies striving to compete in Google’s markets.
Experts believe the investigation could focus on at least one of three areas that have caught regulators’ eyes.
A good first place to look might be online advertising. Google will control 31.1% of global digital ad dollars in 2019, according to eMarketer estimates, crushing a distant second-place Facebook.
“There’s definitely concern on the part of the advertisers themselves that Google wields way too much power in setting rates and favoring their own services over others,” King said.