5 Highlights From the Texas AG Antitrust Case Versus Google businessinsider.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessinsider.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Facebook was going to compete with Google for some advertising sales but backed away from the plan after the companies cut a preferential deal, according to court documents.
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By Ryan Tracy and Jeff Horwitz State attorneys general said in a lawsuit earlier this month that a 2018 business agreement between two digital advertising giants, Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. s Google, was an illegal price-fixing deal. Lawmakers are calling for further investigation. The companies say it was above board. The Wall Street Journal viewed part of a recent unredacted draft version of the lawsuit, which elaborates on allegations in the redacted complaint filed in a Texas federal district court. Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas Ken Paxton, say Google gave Facebook special terms and access to its ad server, a ubiquitous tool for allocating advertising space across the web. This and other conduct by Google, they allege in the final lawsuit, harms competition and deprives advertisers, publishers and consumers of improved quality, greater transparency, increased output and/or lower prices.