A coalition of State Attorneys General is getting ready to announce a massive antitrust investigation into Google’s business practices, according to a Washington Post report. The probe is being joined by more than half of the country’s State Attorneys, and may get announced as early as next Monday.
It’s still unclear which States are joining the probe, and which are still on the sidelines. There is also no word yet on the exact focus of the probe. Critics have in the past taken issue with the way Google positions its own products in its search results, among other issues.
A Google spokesperson told the Post that the company’s products were helping consumers and businesses alike. “We continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general, in answering questions about our business and the dynamic technology sector,” the spokesperson added.
News of this new antitrust probe comes as the tech industry as a whole is under more scrutiny from regulators and politicians alike. Earlier this summer, Facebook announced that it had reached a $5 billion settlement with the FTC to end the agency’s investigation of its privacy violations.
However, that probe also showed that the market doesn’t seem to be too worried about any of these probes having a lasting impact on the industry’s ability to make money. The same day the FTC announced the settlement, Facebook’s share price went up 4% in after-hours trading on news of better-than-expected profits.