Google’s dominance raises troubling concerns for businesses and consumers, according to a bipartisan group of attorneys general representing almost every state who launched an antitrust investigation of the search giant Monday.
The Wall Street Journal reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, announced the probe in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, joined by about a dozen other attorneys general. In all, 48 states are part of the investigation of the Alphabet Inc. unit, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Paxton said the states for now would focus on Google’s practices in online advertising markets. “But the facts will lead where the facts lead,” he said, adding, “We don’t know all the answers.”
The states sent Google a civil subpoena on Monday seeking information about its ad practices, officials said.
Website publishers and advertisers alike say they have little choice but to use Google’s ad services, because the company operates the dominant tool for placing ads online and runs the main tech platform that connects buyers and sellers of ads.
The investigation is the latest challenge for major tech companies, which are under fire from both federal and state antitrust enforcers as well as from Congress, over concern about whether a handful of giant companies have outsize power and are using it to illegally stifle competition and harm consumers.
Google parent company Alphabet disclosed Friday that it received a formal request for information and documents from the Justice Department related to prior antitrust investigations that the internet search giant has faced.
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