Texas attorney general Ken Paxton said Wednesday it has joined nine other state valleys in filing a lawsuit against Google (googl-us) for violating anti-trust laws in its online advertising business, seeking a split and a fine. Google faces joint lawsuits from as many as 30 states on Thursday, in addition to lawsuits filed by the U.S. justice department and the Texas attorney general, Reuters reported.
According to the lawsuit, Google is accused of teaming up with Facebook to strengthen its position in the already dominant online advertising business, demanding compensation and a spin-off.
It is the second major lawsuit against Google brought by US authorities and the fourth in a string of federal and state lawsuits against so-called Big Tech.
On Wednesday, Paxton said Google effectively eliminated competition and monopolized the online advertising business, a comment that appeared to allude to Google’s purchase of DoubleClick in 2007.
“If the free market is a baseball game, the pitchers, hitters and umpires on the field are Google guys,” Paxton says.
Although no full lawsuit has been formally filed, a public filing shows that Texas will join nine other states as plaintiffs, including Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Utah.
In addition to the Texas lawsuit, Google is expected to face another antitrust lawsuit filed by a cross-party attorney general on Thursday, with more than 30 states expected to join the suit, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The suit accuses Google of favouring its own products over neutral results in search engines, to the detriment of competitors of subsidiaries such as YouTube.
Politico also reported on Tuesday that Thursday’s lawsuit is expected to focus on Google’s search engine service, focusing on how Google is disadvantaged by its evolving design.
The us department of justice (DOJ) have to Google filed an antitrust lawsuit, accused Google pipeline through mastering the main search engine – such as the search engine control Android and iOS – rule out other competitors, and to maintain a monopoly of search engine service, illegally when Texas and other 10 state attorney general also took part in the department of justice of litigation.
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