Federal and state authorities reportedly may start working together on an investigation of Google’s dominance in the online search and advertising markets.
US Department of Justice lawyers plan to meet next week with state attorneys general to share information about their respective probes of the Silicon Valley behemoth, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
The meeting is expected to kick off regular talks that could develop into “more formal cooperation” between the feds and state officials, according to the paper. The authorities are likely to discuss the subjects and scope of the investigations and how to divvy up the work going forward, the Journal reported.
Both the feds and the coalition of attorneys general — led by Texas AG Ken Paxton — have reportedly trained their sights on Google’s dominance in online advertising. The company’s grip on the online search market and potential anti-competitive behavior related to its Android smartphone operating system are also in investigators’ cross hairs, according to the Journal.
Google declined to comment on the possibility of the federal and state probes becoming more closely intertwined. But the company has previously pledged to cooperate with authorities who scrutinize it.
“We have always worked constructively with regulators and we will continue to do so,” Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president for global affairs, wrote in a September blog post. “We look forward to showing how we are investing in innovation, providing services that people want, and engaging in robust and fair competition.”
Shares of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, were down 2 percent at $1,436.64 in pre-market trading as of 9:02 a.m. Monday.
The Google probes are not the only antitrust inquiries that regulators have launched involving Big Tech companies.
The Federal Trade Commission is reportedly considering blocking Facebook from tying together its Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp messaging products, a development that led the social media company’s stock price to dip last month.
The House Judiciary Committee has also launched an investigation of competition in digital markets that has focused on Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet.
