Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during a news conference outside the Supreme Court on June 9, 2016.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Tuesday (March 16) that five more states and territories have joined their antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging that the tech giant violated the Antitrust Act.
Paxton said the attorneys general of Alaska, Florida, Montana, Nevada and Puerto Rico have joined the multi-state lawsuit. The joint lawsuit, led by Texas, was originally filed by 10 states together last December.
The lawsuit accuses Google of collecting thousands of user profiles, using the information for profit and “deceiving advertisers, publishers and consumers” about its conduct and motives.
It alleges that Google “monopolizes or attempts to monopolize” online advertising products and services, reducing publishers’ ability to profit from content, increasing costs for advertisers and directly harming consumers.
“We will not allow this unprecedented illegal behavior to continue. Our coalition looks forward to holding Google accountable for its illegal actions and reforming Google’s practices in the future.” Paxton said in a statement, “And we believe that Google will face significant financial penalties and be forced to pay the price for its misconduct.”
The allegations include that Google allegedly joined with Facebook (Facebook) in improper practices and privately entered into anti-competitive agreements on the grounds of protecting user privacy.
According to legal documents filed last December, Facebook announced in 2017 that it would try a new method of selling online ads called “header bidding” (also known as header bidding) and threaten Google.
The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times said they obtained an unredacted lawsuit alleging that Google offered Facebook a secret deal, known internally as “Jedi Blue,” for a growing segment of the online advertising market known as “programmatic advertising. “(programmatic advertising).
Ultimately, Facebook chose to join forces with Google and abandoned the (“advance bidding”) program, and Facebook announced in December 2018 that it had joined Google’s program.
The amended complaint states that Google worked with Facebook to identify users using Apple products, but offers no further details.
In a recent interview, Paxton expressed confidence in his lawsuit, which he believes has a good chance of success.
“We have sued Google for antitrust violations, and we think we definitely have a chance of winning.” Paxton said in an interview with “Breitbart News.
He believes that Google’s digital advertising business model presents a conflict of interest because it represents both buyers and sellers of online ads.
“(Google represents) both the buyers of ads, the sellers of ads, and they control the exchanges,” Paxton said. Paxton said.
“It’s like Goldman Sachs has the only exchange that represents all the buyers and sellers at the same Time and knows all the information, so they can sacrifice the interests of these business owners in exchange for massive profits.” He said.
“The business owners then have to pass those costs on to the consumers. So consumers are unwittingly paying too much for using the Internet.”
Other states joining the Texas lawsuit include Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.
Texas has been cracking down on the monopolistic way Silicon Valley companies operate, including how large tech companies restrict user content.
The tech companies, which are seen as politically biased, are suspected of unequally restricting users’ content. Critics say most of the restrictions by these companies over the past year have focused on conservative speech and supporters of former President Donald Trump (R).
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) previously said he is working with state lawmakers on a bill to prevent large tech companies from restricting user content based on political views.
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