States sue Google for monopoly practices

38 states have accused Google of abusing its market position to boost even further the domination of its search engine.

Reuters’ Diane Bartz and Paresh Dave reported:

Google faced its third major lawsuit in two months on Thursday as 38 U.S. states and territories accused the $1 trillion company of abusing its market power to try to make its search engine as dominant inside cars, TVs and speakers as it is in phones.

The lawsuit against the company’s parent Alphabet Inc follows years of complaints that it and other big tech firms including Facebook and Amazon use their massive market power to smite competitors in pursuit of profits.

Shannon Bond from NPR wrote:

“Google sits at the crossroads of so many areas of our digital economy and has used its dominance to illegally squash competitors, monitor nearly every aspect of our digital lives, and profit to the tune of billions,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.

The new lawsuit adds to an emerging portrait by state and federal officials of a company that has capitalized on deep troves of data about what people do online to gain unrivaled positions in search and advertising.

“It’s not, ‘People use Google.’ Google uses people,” said Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.

The Wall Street Journal’s Ryan Tracy noted:

Google has long said it operates in a competitive market. In a blog post Thursday, Google economic policy director Adam Cohen said some of the actions described in the suit were taken to improve search results.

“We show information that helps you connect with businesses directly and helps them reach more customers,” Mr. Cohen wrote. “This lawsuit demands changes to the design of Google Search, requiring us to prominently feature online middlemen in place of direct connections to businesses.”