Justice Department, state AGs reportedly planning to target Google in what could be 'the most significant antitrust cases in U.S. history'

The Justice Department and the attorneys general of several states are expected to bring antitrust suits against Google focusing intensely on the company's ad business, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The Justice Department's case could reportedly be brought as soon as this summer, while the state attorneys general are expected to file a case closer to the fall.

Still, "one unanswered question," writes the Journal, "is whether the states will file their own complaint, or simply join in the federal case when it is filed. It's even possible different groups of states will file separate complaints." Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is leading the states' charge, has emphasized that the pandemic is not slowing their investigation and "if we determine that filing is merited we will go to court soon after that."

Google's ad business has long been a source of criticism. "Regulators are starting to look at the fact that Google doesn't have a real peer in technologies along the links of the digital media supply chain, such as those technologies that decide what to bid on ads or negotiate the transaction between the buy side and the sell side," CNBC wrote in late 2019, noting that the tech giant was on track to surpass 20 percent of U.S. ad spending both online and offline by the end of the year. Some critics have gone as far as to call for a breakup of the company.

The Wall Street Journal adds that "the lawsuits — if they are filed — could pose a direct threat to Google's businesses and rank among the most significant antitrust cases in U.S. history, alongside the government's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. in the late 1990s." Read more about the potential lawsuits here.