States File Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google
18 December 2020 - 5:35AM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Tracy and John D. McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- A coalition of 38 states filed an antitrust suit
against Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit, alleging it maintained
monopoly power over the internet search market through
anticompetitive contracts and conduct.
The suit was the third recent government antitrust action
against Google, following a Wednesday complaint from other states
focused on Google's digital advertising empire and an Oct. 20
Justice Department suit also targeting its search business.
Thursday's suit added allegations not covered in detail in the
other two complaints. The lawsuits could proceed separately or
eventually join in a single case over what could be years of
litigation.
Taken together, they represent a bipartisan broadside against
one of America's most successful companies, accusing it of
unlawfully gaining and abusing monopoly power.
The separately filed suits partly reflect a practical division
of labor. Agencies with limited resources divvied up the work of
probing different aspects of Google's business.
The filings also have a tense political backdrop. The leader of
Wednesday's lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, this month
unsuccessfully asked the Supreme Court to void presidential
election results in states won by Democrats. His Google lawsuit
received support from nine other Republican attorneys general, and
no Democrats.
By contrast, the Federal Trade Commission and 46 states
coordinated and simultaneously filed their recent antitrust lawsuit
targeting Facebook Inc. Whether the disparate suits benefit Google,
or complicate its legal problems, remains to be seen.
Thursday's suit followed a monthslong investigation by attorneys
general in Colorado, Nebraska, New York and other states into
whether Google abuses the market power of its dominant search
business.
The states' probe extended beyond the Justice Department
investigation, which sued Google on Oct. 20 alleging the company
preserved a monopoly in the general online-search business through
illegal anticompetitive tactics. That suit didn't make detailed
complaints about Google's more targeted search businesses or its
online advertising empire.
Google has called the federal suit deeply flawed, arguing that
it competes on merit and maintains dominance because consumers
choose its product first.
The state case dates back to September 2019, when state
attorneys general stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court to declare
-- in an unusually public manner -- that nearly every state and the
District of Columbia were joining to probe Google's conduct. The
state investigations later divided along two tracks, with a group
of states including Colorado looking at Google's search business
and another group led by Texas looking at its advertising
business.
Congress is also considering changes to antitrust law to bolster
enforcers' abilities to go after big tech companies, though
partisan disagreements could frustrate those legislative
efforts.
The move against Google comes amid rising animus from across the
political spectrum toward the tech giants, rooted in the power they
maintain and the way they wield it.
Facebook Inc. was hit Dec. 9 with antitrust lawsuits from the
Federal Trade Commission and 46 states alleging that the
social-media titan stifled competition by buying or freezing out
smaller startups. Facebook disputed the claims and said it would
defend itself vigorously.
For most of its history, Google benefited from hands-off U.S.
oversight, with both state and federal officials approving its
acquisitions and generally declining to challenge the company over
complaints from rivals even as it faced antitrust suits in
Europe.
That tide shifted in the past two years, as policy makers grew
more concerned about the centrality large technology companies have
acquired in American commerce and discourse.
Google has faced bipartisan criticism at congressional hearings
this year, with both Democrats and Republicans calling it a
monopoly.
"The evidence seems very clear to me. As Google became the
gateway to the internet, it began to abuse its power. It used its
surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats and
crushed them," Rep. David Cicilline (D., R.I.) told Alphabet Chief
Executive Sundar Pichai at a hearing in July.
Mr. Pichai said the company faces "vigorous competition." "We
have always focused on providing users the most relevant
information, and we rely on the trust for users to come back to
Google every day," he said.
Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com and John D. McKinnon
at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 17, 2020 13:20 ET (18:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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