Google has gotten bigger over the years, and that increased market share has come at the cost of increased scrutiny. The Department of Justice filed a massive antitrust lawsuit against the company in October, and last month we learned that more might be on the way. Those predictions have now come to pass, as a collection of nearly 40 states has filed a new suit against Google accusing it of “building an impenetrable moat around its kingdom.”
The latest lawsuit comes from a collection attorneys general from 38 states, led by Colorado and Nebraska. It’s an expansive filing that claims Google hasn’t come about its massive search monopoly fairly, but by engaging in a variety of anti-competitive practices, such as negotiating special deals that ensure Google is the default search option on web browsers, smartphones, and smart home devices. It also alleges that Google manipulates its search results in order to provide its own products with a leg up over competitors, ranking them higher than rivals.
