Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a video announcing the lawsuit that Google has used its alleged monopoly power to control pricing and “engage in market collusion to rig auctions.”
“Google effectively eliminated its competition and crowned itself the head of online advertising,” Paxton said in the video, which could be an allusion to Google’s 2007 acquisition of DoubleClick.
The full complaint had not yet been publicly released as of Wednesday afternoon. An open docket listed nine Republican-led states as co-plaintiffs: Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah.
A third lawsuit is expected to be filed as soon as Thursday from another bipartisan coalition of states, Politico reported on Tuesday
“If the free market were a baseball game, Google positioned itself as the pitcher, the batter and the umpire,” Paxton said.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit follows a separate complaint from the Department of Justice claiming Google has illegally maintained a monopoly in online general search services by cutting off competitors from key distribution channels. Texas, which also joined ten other Republican state attorneys general in the DOJ suit, had led a large multi-state probe into Google’s ad tech business beginning last year.
Paxton has recently entered the public consciousness for different reasons. Senior officials in his office asked law enforcement to investigate their boss over accusations of bribery, local media reported in October. Paxton has called the allegations “false.”
Paxton also recently led an effort to challenge the results of the U.S. presidential election by asking the Supreme Court for permission to sue four battleground states that President-elect Joe Biden won. The Supreme Court denied that request.
CNBC
