Both the U.S. Department of Justice and a group of attorneys general are likely to file a complaint against Google’s parent company Alphabet in the coming months for breaking the country’s antitrust laws, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The medium, which cites “sources of knowledge of the matter,” notes that the Justice Department aims to file the complaint this summer, while attorneys general, led by Texan Ken Paxton, could file their own case in the fall.
Much of the research carried out by the states around Google’s alleged monopoly revolves around its online advertising practices, since the company owns the tool used in the complicated chain that connects advertisers to the platforms on which advertising is published.
The Department of Justice, according to the WSJ, is also focusing on Google’s advertising technology, but also investigates more broadly the concerns raised by Google’s use of its search engine to quell its competitors.
Although the pandemic has complicated the work of the Justice Department, U.S. Attorney General William Barr has devoted considerable resources to Google’s investigations, and continues to treat the issue as one of the top priorities.
In March, Barr told the Wall Street Journal that he wanted the Justice Department to make a decision around this case for the summer.
The Texas attorney general, for his part, has stated that the coronavirus is not slowing down his state’s efforts and has noted that he has already issued civil subpoenas for Google and third parties involved.
For his part, a Google spokesman assured the New York newspaper that they continue to “collaborate on on ongoing investigations led by the Department of Justice and Attorney General Paxton,” without providing updates.
“We are firmly focused on providing services that help the consumer, support thousands of businesses and enable greater choice and competition,” added the tech giant’s representative.
Sources cited by the Wall Street Journal emphasized that the Department of Justice continues to gather information in its investigations and that everything points to a complaint being filed, but that both federal and state inquiries are still ongoing and no final decision has taken place.
It is also unknown whether the states will file their own complaint against Google or whether they will join the case filed by the federal authorities, or whether, for example, different states will file different lawsuits, as some have focused more on investigating potential monopolies in relation to advertising and others in relation to their search tool.
If the allegations were filed, they could pose a threat to Google’s business, as well as becoming one of the most prominent antitrust cases in U.S. history, along with the one filed against Microsoft in the late 1990s.
Google critics have sought various actions against the company, from changes in its business practices to the fragmentation of the company.
