States target Google in new antitrust probe
Fifty U.S. states and territories, led by Texas, 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, although it does include the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Google is headquartered in California and employs more workers there than in any other region. Google also broke ground last year on a $600 million datacenter project in Alabama.
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 almost 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.
The state officials assembled in Washington were vague about the focus and scope of the investigation, although several suggested scrutiny of the company’s dominant search and advertising businesses.
Several advocacy groups applauded the announcement, saying the power of tech companies has gone unchecked for too long. Antitrust enforcement “can help consumers and innovative competitors access markets for platforms that are more fair and more competitive,” the group Public Knowledge said in a statement.
Critics often point to Google’s 2007 acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick as pivotal to its advertising dominance.
Europe’s antitrust 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.