DES MOINES, IOWA (September 9, 2019) — Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller released the following statement on a bipartisan investigation of tech giant Google’s business practices related to state and federal antitrust laws:
“It’s very early in the investigation and we have drawn no conclusions. The broad question we are examining is whether Google has achieved and maintained its dominance through business practices designed to thwart competition. We are concerned about Google’s control of so much of the information and commerce on the internet, and this power has been gained without transparency.
“Iowans are right to question what information Google collects and shares about them, how it targets them with advertising, how it chooses what information to prioritize, how it limits its access to new innovations, and how it does so on so many platforms and products.
“At this point, we will not limit our investigation to any specific business practice or legal theory. We will go where the facts take us.”
Iowa is one of eight states leading the investigation, along with Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Mississippi. Fifty attorneys-general are participating.
On Friday, Attorney General Miller confirmed that he is one of nine attorneys general that have launched a separate bipartisan investigation of Facebook to examine whether the company has violated antitrust laws.
Miller previously led an antitrust investigation into Microsoft.
