US launches mega-investigation against Google's monopoly

Attorneys General of 50 states and territories United States announced the start of a macro-survey against Google for an alleged violation of the laws antitrust.

"This is a very important problem of our time.Many consumers think that the Internet is free, but we have learned that this is not the case." Alphabet is a company that dominates all aspects of advertising, "said the Attorney General of Texas at a press conference. Republican Ken Paxton, who leads the coalition.

Google faces charges that its web search service is driving consumers to their own products at the expense of their competitors.

"We participated in this survey.Where there is more competition in the free market, prices rise even when something is sold as free and as consumers suffer," he said. Ashley Moody, a Florida attorney, at the same appearance.

The District Attorney General, Karl Racine, has not ruled out a possible coordination between this macro-survey and the one already opened against Facebook and headed by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Other investigations against Google

Wednesday, YouTube – owned by Google – agreed with the law to pay a $ 170 million fine in the United States and promised to better protect the data of children who surf the video platform. The Brazilian Ministry of Justice is also badyzing a similar case.

On the other side of the ocean, the European Commission has already condemned the Californian giant three times to a dominant position: in June 2017, its "Google Shopping" service amounted to 2,420 million euros. # 39; euro; in July 2018 for its Android operating system (with 2,420 million euros); and in March 2019 for its advertising tool AdSense (1,490 million euros).

US to investigate Facebook for antitrust law

Last Friday, another coalition of attorneys general from eight US states opened an investigation into whether Facebook was endangering consumer data or violating antitrust law.

"The largest social media platform in the world must abide by the law," said New York Attorney General Letitia James, announcing the investigations.

Last month, Facebook agreed to pay $ 5,000,000,000 under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for charges of breach of privacy.