The Department of Justice (DOJ) may now be one step closer to bringing down Google’s massive empire.
The DOJ is expected to brief state attorneys general on plans to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google as early as this week, according to sources cited in The Washington Post.
The antitrust investigation was opened last year, according to The Post, and briefing the state attorneys general is the next step in the process of bringing Google to heel. Earlier this month, Attorney General William Barr made plans to bring an antitrust suit against Google by the end of September.
“Two people familiar with the matter confirmed the Justice Department’s early plans, but they cautioned that it could change and that a lawsuit may come later than anticipated,” The Post’s sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, reportedly said.
Both Google and the DOJ reportedly declined to comment on the investigation.
Last week, a representative from Google faced off with the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights. Senators Mike Lee (R-UT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Google’s President of Global Partnerships and Corporate Development Don Harrison on Google’s anti-conservative bias and the company’s business practices. “If Google isn’t dominant, why does it have the power to demand of a media publisher it disagrees with that it take down the comments site and why does it expect immediate obedience?” Cruz asked Harrison at the hearing.
While there is still, officially, no guarantee that the DOJ will actually bring an antitrust lawsuit against Google, this next step may bring the case closer to completion.
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