Google to face massive antitrust onslaught next week

The Washington Post reports that plans to probe Silicon Valley giants for antitrust violations will solidify next week into a specific investigation into Google’s practices.

The probe will be spearheaded by a wide range of state attorneys general who are working in partnership with the Department of Justice and will be focussing on anti-competitive and user data privacy-related practices.

The investigation is expected to be formally unveiled at a news conference on the 9th September,  and it is unclear if additional probes targeting Facebook and Amazon will also be launched.

Attempts to prosecute Google have generally been fruitless in the USA, but the company has been the subject of multiple billion-dollar fines in the EU.

In Europe Google was convicted of abusing their monopoly position in Search, Android and Advertising, earning more $9.3 billion in fines. The USA last fined Google a mere $22.5 million for abusing privacy protections on iOS in 2012. Due to European precedents, however, regulators may have an easier time this time around.