States file antitrust lawsuit against Google's advertising business

AppleInsider

A group of state attorneys general led by Texas have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google focused on the company's advertising technology and its dominance in the ad industry.

Credit: Greg Bulla

The complaint, filed on Wednesday, goes after Google's alleged stranglehold on the advertising technology market. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the lawsuit in a clip, though the full complaint is not currently available.

In the announcement clip, Paxton claims that Google uses its monopoly power to control pricing and "engage in market collusion to rig auctions." He adds that Google has eliminated its competition and "crowned itself the head of online advertising."

#BREAKING: Texas takes the lead once more! Today, we're filing a lawsuit against #Google for anticompetitive conduct.

This internet Goliath used its power to manipulate the market, destroy competition, and harm YOU, the consumer. Stay tuned pic.twitter.com/fdEVEWQb0e

-- Texas Attorney General (@TXAG)

December 16, 2020

"If the free market were a baseball game, Google positioned itself as the pitcher, the batter and the umpire," Paxton said.

Multiple states will join Texas in the lawsuit, though Paxton has yet to announce which other states are involved. CNBC reports that the other states are all Republican-led.

The Texas attorney general is also part of a separate antitrust lawsuit against Facebook.

The new complaint follows several months after the Department of Justice lodged its own lawsuit against the search and advertising giant, though the department's lawsuit focuses on the company's search business. However, the Justice Department is also investigating Google's ad tech dominance and could still file a lawsuit for that.

Politico on Wednesday reported that another bipartisan coalition of states, led by the attorneys general of Colorado and Nebraska, could soon launch a third lawsuit against Google.

22july2013

Democrats $5,437,048 (88%), Republicans - $766,920 (12%) "Google employees may not be the most partisan but they do provide, by far, the most capital among tech companies. [Bernie] Sanders, alone, received more than $1 million from Google workers, followed by Warren and Biden. A PAC called Future Forward USA has received $750,000." -CNBC

I guess their party took power this time around, so it was money well spent. I wouldn't expect many Dems to get angry with Google.

chelin

While I’m not. Google proponent I find it difficult to understand what this actually mean? I would assume this case doesn’t pertain to Google search. But rather their AdWords solution, something that third party actors enable on their end. So shouldn’t Texas be chasing after these third party websites to get them to switch ad providers?

Beats

At least Google DOES have a monopoly here. Plus they have removed ads who don't align with their political agenda which is fu**ed up.

viclauyyc

Beats said:

At least Google DOES have a monopoly here. Plus they have removed ads who don't align with their political agenda which is fu**ed up.

As long as the ad is telling FACT , I don’t think google will have problems with it. All money is green in America.

danox

I guess Google isn’t moving to Texass in 2021

SpamSandwich

danox said:

I guess Google isn’t moving to Texass in 2021

Good. There are too many Californians there now.

Rayz2016

In a free market, Google isn’t allowed to try to eliminate the competition?

GeorgeBMac

chelin said:

While I’m not. Google proponent I find it difficult to understand what this actually mean? I would assume this case doesn’t pertain to Google search. But rather their AdWords solution, something that third party actors enable on their end. So shouldn’t Texas be chasing after these third party websites to get them to switch ad providers?

It's most likely retribution for the fact that Google would not let Trump run distorted, lying election ads like FaceBook did -- plus the general conservative hatred of Google for not moving their propaganda sites up to the top of their search lists.

The guy leading the lawsuit is the same joker who tried to undermine our democracy by suing states that voted Democratic.

This is pure, 100% politics.  This suit is not likely to get any further than his lawsuit against states who voted democrat.   It should get a laugh and a finger from the court.

Maybe w should we ask Mexico if they want Texas back?   It sounds like their corrupt government there would get along well with Mexican cartels.

gatorguy

Beats said:

At least Google DOES have a monopoly here. Plus they have removed ads who don't align with their political agenda which is fu**ed up.

AFAIK there were no ads to remove. Google doesn't place political ads on behalf of advertisers. They also don't allow the collecting of political persuasion from users. Same with religious ads and affiliations, not allowed.  Ads based on personal health info? Nope, not allowed either. 

GeorgeBMac

gatorguy said:

Beats said:

At least Google DOES have a monopoly here. Plus they have removed ads who don't align with their political agenda which is fu**ed up.

AFAIK there were no ads to remove. Google doesn't place political ads on behalf of advertisers. They also don't allow the collecting of political persuasion from users. Same with religious ads and affiliations, not allowed.  Ads based on personal health info? Nope, not allowed either. 

Because Google doesn't cater to right wing crazies and promote their propaganda, to them "it has a political agenda".  George Bush put their motto well:  "If you ain't for me, you're agin me".