ARIZONA NEWS
Arizona joins antitrust lawsuit against Google over online advertising tech
Apr 20, 2023, 10:00 AM
(Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
PHOENIX — Arizona joined a multistate antitrust lawsuit against Google, alleging the company has been abusing its dominance of online advertising, the state Attorney General’s Office announced Wednesday.
The 17-state federal complaint alleges Google monopolizes critical advertising technologies that connect website publishers with advertisers.
The complaint also alleges that the internet giant has spent the last 15 years reducing competition by acquiring competitors.
“My office is firmly committed to fighting monopolistic abuses of market power,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release.
“Healthy competition in the digital marketplace improves the quality of products, reduces costs and benefits consumers.”
The lawsuit demands that Google divest itself of the businesses that manage the buying, selling and auctioning of digital display advertising, leaving the company with it’s core search business and other products such as YouTube, Gmail and cloud services.
Arizona joined the U.S. Department of Justice and a bipartisan group of attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia on the filing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
