WASHINGTON—Google was targeted Thursday in an antitrust lawsuit joined by 38 states, which alleged that the Alphabet Inc. unit maintained monopoly power over the internet-search market through anticompetitive contracts and conduct.
The states alleged that Google leverages its position as the dominant search engine—and the personal data such a perch allows the company to gather—to limit consumers from using competing search engines, force businesses to use its proprietary advertising tools and foreclose competition from specialized search engines for travel or local businesses.
“Consumers have better products and services when they’ve got choice in the marketplace, and they’ve been deprived,” said Democratic Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser at a video-streamed news conference with other state attorneys general.
“This will be a unified effort,” said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, a Republican.
Google has long said it operates in a competitive market. In a blog post Thursday, Google economic policy director Adam Cohen said some of the actions described in the suit were taken to improve search results.
