‘We Think We’ve Absolutely Got a Case That Will Win’: Texas AG Ken Paxton on Big Tech Antitrust Action

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the launch of an antitrust investigation into large tech companies outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington on Sept. 9, 2019. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed his certainty in winning an antitrust case Texas filed against Google, which alleges illegal monopolistic practices.

Paxton talked with Breitbart about the lawsuit against the tech giant. He was asked to comment on a proposal from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that would allow big tech companies to be fined or sued for specific content-policing decisions.

“We definitely are looking at [DeSantis’s proposal],” Paxton said. “We’re trying to encourage our legislature to do something similar [in Texas], because I feel like [Big Tech] have had exemption from liability that they shouldn’t have had, especially being in the monopolistic position they are in.”

The Texas Attorney General said that they’re focusing on the lawsuits.

“We’ve sued Google for antitrust violations, and we think we’ve absolutely got a case that will win, and very likely, there [will] be other companies [doing] this process [that we will] learn have done the same thing [and] that are in the very same position.”

The logos of mobile apps Facebook and Google on a smartphone in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 9, 2020. The Epoch Times

Paxton said that the emphasis of their lawsuit is “ad tech,” referring to the fact that Big Tech possesses almost exclusive control over advertising on the internet.

He explained the conflict of interest that Google’s business model exhibits.

“[Google represents] the buyers of advertising, the sellers of advertising, and they control the exchange,” Paxton said.

“It would be like Goldman Sachs owning the only exchange and representing all the buyers and sellers at the same time, knowing all the information, and therefore they can massively profit at the expense of these business owners who then have to pass on those costs to consumers. So consumers are paying an exorbitantly high price for use of the Internet without even knowing it,” he explains.

On Oct. 20 of last year, Paxton announced that Texas would be involved in the lawsuit along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the states of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina.

“Google’s illegal conduct has allowed it to dominate the search industry by requiring exclusivity from business partners and avoiding competition on the merits while shielding itself from competitors who might threaten its market share,” the AG’s office said in a statement.

The judge overseeing the DOJ case has put forward an initial trial date for Sept. 12, 2023.