Amid ongoing investigating by the federal government and almost every other state , California has reportedly launch its own antitrust probe into the world ’s biggest advertising bureau , Google , as it continues to face scrutiny by U.S. and extraneous regulator over its potency in the online advertizement industriousness , and the possible abuse thereof .
Politico , citing three the great unwashed with knowledge of the unexampled inquiry , report late Thursdaythat the California lawyer general , Xavier Becerra , had opened the antimonopoly investigation . It was unclear , the situation said , which aspect of Google ’s byplay is being targeted . Becerra ’s investigation was also said to be separate from the antitrust investigation launched in September by 48 state , the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico .
The California probe would leave Alabama as the only res publica that is not known to be investigating Google ’s practice .
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai gestures during a session with World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, on 29 April 2025.Photo: Fabrice Coffrini (Getty Images)
Becerra ’s office declined to remark on the Politico story . “ To protect the wholeness of our work , it ’s our exercise not to remark on any pending or likely probe , even to confirm or deny their existence , ” Sarah Lovenheim , a interpreter for the attorney general , state Gizmodo .
Beyond concerns about Google ’s overall dominance in the advertising engineering market , regulators have allege the company ’s business practices may have repress innovation , violate user ’ privacy , and give Google an outsized role in the spread of information online .
Google declined to remark . CEO Sundar Pichai enjoin in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos that with Google ’s weighing machine “ truly comes scrutiny . ” “ You are right we have bought startups , ” he said in response to a related interrogative , “ but as a company , we invest every individual year in hundreds of inauguration through our venture arms . These support entrepreneurs and incubators around the world . ”
“ Past probe of Google uncovered rape place from advertising illegal drugs in the United States to now three antitrust action brought by the European Commission , ” a statement by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ’s place read last year . “ None of these former investigation , however , fully turn to the source of Google ’s free burning market power and the ability to charter in serial and repeated business practices with the intention to protect and maintain that big businessman . ”
Google first publiclyacknowledgedan antitrust probe by the U.S. Justice Department and “ more than one-half ” of the state lawyer general in September 2019 . In a blog post titled , “ Google ’s services create selection for consumer , and spur innovation in the U.S. ” Ken Walker , senior vice president of spheric affairs , drop a line that DOJ had “ foretell that it ’s starting a review of online platform , ” and that Google require to suffice doubt about its practices .
The European Union dispatch Google with a record$5 billionfine in 2018 for violating antimonopoly regulation . “ Google has used Android as a fomite to cement the dominance of its lookup locomotive , ” EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said at the time . “ These practices have denied challenger the prospect to innovate and vie on the virtue . ”
In February , the Federal Trade Commission supply a special order demanding Google , among four other major technical school companies , reach over detail about its mergers and acquisition during the past 10 . Google develop at least 181 outside firms during this time , fit in to data usable on Crunchbase , as Gizmodo ’s Bryan Menegus previouslyreported .
The FTC confirmed at the time that the projection was begun to investigate whether “ Union antitrust agency are get adequate notice about potentially anticompetitive transactions . ” However , the findings , Chairman Joe Simon tell , could very well result in enforcement action mechanism .
[ Politico ]
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