Cleveland.com | Jeremy Pelzer
Days after joining an anti-trust investigation into Facebook, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced Tuesday that he’s participating in a similar multi-state investigation into Google’s business practices.
Yost and 49 other attorneys general will look into Google’s “overarching control of online advertising markets and search traffic that may have led to anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers,” the Columbus Republican’s office said in a release. Yost noted that about 85 percent of Google’s $136.2 billion in revenue last year came from advertising.
As more facts become known, the investigation may expand its scope to emerging areas where Google “is unfairly exerting its influence,” according to the release.
“Antitrust has always been about the concentrated power to dominate the market and society. Money is the traditional tool to gain that monopoly power,” Yost said. “Data is the new money.”