On Monday, a group of 50 attorneys general from US states and territories signed onto an antitrust investigation into Google.
The probe will be led by Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton from Texas, will focus primarily on Google’s advertising and search businesses. But in remarks given Monday, the attorneys general suggested that they may expand the investigation later.
California and Alabama are the only two state attorneys general staying out of the probe.
At a press conference on Monday in front of the Supreme Court, Paxton said: “Google dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet,” reported The Washington Post.
The Open Markets Institute said in a statement: “We applaud the 50 state attorneys general for taking this unprecedented stand against Big Tech by uniting to investigate Google’s destruction of competition in search and advertising. We haven’t seen a major monopolization case against a tech giant since Microsoft was sued in 1998. Today’s announcement marks the start of a new era.”
Running parallel to the states investigation, the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission are also probing the companies out of concerns they may be stifling competition in the industry.
