DOJ Officials, State AGs To Meet Tuesday On Google Antitrust Probe

On Tuesday (Feb. 4), according to sources, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) will meet with state attorneys general representatives to review collective investigations of Google. Officials from as many as seven states — Texas included — will be at an afternoon meeting in Washington, D.C., with representatives from the Federal Trade Commission, DOJ and the House Judiciary Committee.

In recent years, multiple investigations have been launched by the DOJ and almost every state attorney general into whether Google has violated antitrust laws regarding advertising regulations, search engine preferences and the company’s popular Android operating system. President Donald Trump, as well as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have been critical of the company’s business practices.

Other tech giants — including Amazon, Apple and Facebook — have been targeted by federal and state investigations as well, after smaller internet companies complained that the larger organizations were taking advantage of their market size to bully them.

As PYMNTS reported last week, this meeting in Washington, D.C. could end up with both state and federal agencies combining efforts to regulate Google more effectively. Primarily focused on whether Google’s online searches are unfair, discussion between the government officials will also focus on determining whether there is significant monopolistic potential in Google’s popular Android operating system.

So far, the federal and state agencies have not shared data regarding their concurrent, multiple investigations.

In 2019, attorneys general from 48 U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico formally launched an investigation into Google. Despite the investigations, however, Google parent company Alphabet and Facebook have generally had higher share prices in the U.S. stock exchanges.