As the nation's biggest tech companies gear up for federal antitrust investigations, they're increasingly dealing with a second front: the states.
New York Attorney General Tish James, a Democrat, announced on Friday she's leading a bipartisan group of state AGs looking at the market power of Facebook.
That's on top of a separate probe by more than 30 state AGs led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, into Google, two people close to the matter previously told POLITICO. The Google investigation is due to be unveiled at a Monday press conference in Washington.“Even the largest social media platform in the world must follow the law and respect consumers,” James said in a statement. "We will use every investigative tool at our disposal to determine whether Facebook’s actions may have endangered consumer data, reduced the quality of consumers’ choices, or increased the price of advertising.”
The AGs taking part in the Facebook probe so far include Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia. While some states are involved in both the Facebook and Google investigations, the probes are being handled separately. The Wall Street Journal first reported the state action on Facebook.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google and Facebook have already faced mounting pressure from federal authorities in recent months. The Justice Department in July announced a sweeping antitrust probe into whether major tech companies are stifling competition or innovation.
Facebook has separately disclosed it's facing an antitrust investigation from the Federal Trade Commission, and it agreed to a $5 billion settlement with that agency to settle a probe into its data privacy practices. The FTC just slapped Google with a $170 million fine and sanctions over YouTube's handling of children's privacy.While Texas is taking the lead with the Google investigation, several other states are taking a prominent role, the sources close to the probe told POLITICO. The number of states involved could grow, one of the people said, adding the probe has been underway for months.
Google, in an earlier statement to POLITICO in response to news about the state action, said its "services help people every day, create more choice for consumers, and support thousands of jobs and small businesses across the country."
"We continue to work constructively with regulators, including attorneys general, in answering questions about our business and the dynamic technology sector," said company spokesperson Jose Castaneda.
Several state AGs recently met in Washington with U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Makan Delrahim, who heads the Justice Department's antitrust division, to discuss tech competition issues.
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine