MADISON – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul has joined 49 attorneys general in a Google antitrust investigation, the state Department of Justice announced Monday.
The probe’s initial focus is online advertising, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the multistate, bipartisan coalition.
“This is a company that dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet,” Paxton said during a news conference Monday. “They dominate the buyer side, the seller side, the auction side and even the video side with YouTube,” Paxton said during a news conference Monday.
- RELATED: Newspaper industry to urge Congress to provide antitrust safe harbor
- RELATED: Newspapers turn to lobbying against Facebook and Google
- VIDEO: Watch news conference about Google antitrust investigation
Legal experts from each state will work in cooperation with Federal authorities to assess competitive conditions for online services and ensure that Americans have access to free digital markets.
“The tech sector is an important part of the U.S. economy, and tech companies have access to a lot of personal information,” said Kaul. “We must ensure that competition over technological innovation and privacy protections isn’t stifled.”