WASHINGTON: Attorneys general from 48 US states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have opened an antitrust probe into big tech companies that focuses on Alphabet’s Google, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton formally announced on Monday.
Paxton leads the probe, he said, which will focus on Google’s advertising business. California and Alabama are not part of the investigation.
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.
States on Monday formally requested documents from Google on its advertising business, Paxton said. Several of the attorneys general at the announcement in Washington described the investigation as “preliminary” but said they expected it would expand to cover other issues, including data privacy.
Utah attorney general Sean Reyes said the probe was “for the benefit of the tech ecosystem to help level the playing field”. Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge called Google’s online search engine a “juggernaut”, and argued that a free search sometimes came at the cost of the freedom to choose the best products from the best companies.
The tech giants that were once praised as engines of economic growth with massive efficiencies have increasingly come under fire for allegedly misusing their clout in the market and lapses such as privacy breaches.
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 fairly 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 said in a statement on Friday that it would work constructively with them. It had no further comment on Monday. Its shares were down 0.6% in late trading. Regulators also could focus on areas such as Google’s video site YouTube, an acquisition Google scored in 2006.
Paxton leads the probe, he said, which will focus on Google’s advertising business. California and Alabama are not part of the investigation.
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.
States on Monday formally requested documents from Google on its advertising business, Paxton said. Several of the attorneys general at the announcement in Washington described the investigation as “preliminary” but said they expected it would expand to cover other issues, including data privacy.
Utah attorney general Sean Reyes said the probe was “for the benefit of the tech ecosystem to help level the playing field”. Arkansas attorney general Leslie Rutledge called Google’s online search engine a “juggernaut”, and argued that a free search sometimes came at the cost of the freedom to choose the best products from the best companies.
The tech giants that were once praised as engines of economic growth with massive efficiencies have increasingly come under fire for allegedly misusing their clout in the market and lapses such as privacy breaches.
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 fairly 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 said in a statement on Friday that it would work constructively with them. It had no further comment on Monday. Its shares were down 0.6% in late trading. Regulators also could focus on areas such as Google’s video site YouTube, an acquisition Google scored in 2006.
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