Today, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) released their Online Platforms and Digital Advertising Market Study Interim Report, which assesses the market power of Google and other online platforms. Attorney General Ken Paxton gave this statement:
“The CMA—like many other competition authorities around the world, including the Texas-led multistate bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general—is examining the dominance and conduct of tech giant Google in online markets, and I applaud those efforts. The CMA’s interim report reflects a growing concern over Google’s business practices, and we intend to closely follow the facts we discover in our own investigation and proceed as necessary if Google has harmed competition, undermined consumer choice, stifled innovation, or violated users’ privacy and trust.”
In September, Attorney General Paxton and 49 other attorneys general launched a bipartisan investigation of tech giant Google’s business practices in accordance with state and federal antitrust laws. The coalition announced plans to investigate Google’s overarching control of online advertising markets and search traffic that may have led to anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers. This investigation is ongoing.