Attorney General Phil Weiser’s lawsuit seeking to end Google’s search engine monopoly presses ahead to trial

Aug. 4, 2023 (DENVER)—Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser released the following statement regarding a federal judge’s opinion allowing a multistate Google antitrust lawsuit to go to trial:

“I am pleased that the multistate attorneys general lawsuit challenging Google’s monopoly in the search engine market and search advertising will proceed to trial in September. We will continue to evaluate how to best press forward and establish Google’s pattern of illegal conduct that harms consumers and competition.”

The trial is scheduled to start on Sept. 12 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

In December of 2020, Attorney General Weiser led a bipartisan coalition of 38 attorneys general in filing the lawsuit, which seeks to end Google’s illegal monopoly in the search market. The attorneys general complaint alleges that Google illegally maintains its monopoly power over general search engines and related general search advertising markets through a series of anticompetitive contracts and conduct. As a result, Google is hurting both consumers and advertisers.

The states are led by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. They are joined by the attorneys general of Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam and Puerto Rico.

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