From the Wall Street Journal:
"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 states alleged that Google leverages its position as the dominant search engine - and the personal data such a perch allows the company to gather - to limit consumers from using competing search engines, force businesses to use its proprietary advertising tools and foreclose competition from specialized search engines for travel or local businesses."
According to the story, "The 38 states filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the same venue where the Justice Department filed a suit Oct. 20 against Google targeting its search business. The states said they were seeking to join the two lawsuits into one piece of litigation.
"Another state case, which focused on Google’s digital advertising empire, was filed Wednesday in a Texas federal court."
“Consumers have better products and services when they’ve got choice in the marketplace, and they’ve been deprived,” Phil Weiser, the Democratic Colorado Attorney General of Colorado, tells the Journal.
Tom Miller, the Republican Attorney General of Iowa, added, “This will be a unified effort."
The story notes that "Google has called the federal suit and the Texas-led suit deeply flawed, arguing that it competes on merit and maintains dominance because consumers choose its product first."
- KC's View:
-
I refer you back to the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, and this week's Innovation Conversation on MNB.
This discussion has just begun.
