Ohio asked a court on Tuesday to declare Alphabet's Google a
public utility, a step the state's Republican attorney general said would
forbid the search and advertising giant from giving preferential treatment to
its own products.
"When you own the railroad or the electric company or
the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody
access," Attorney General Dave Yost said in a statement.
The lawsuit, which estimates that Google is used for nearly
90% of internet searches and has 95% of the search share on mobile devices,
accuses Google of responding to certain search requests in a way that
prioritizes Google's products even if other responses would give better
answers.
"Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer
Ohioans to Google's own products - that's discriminatory and
anti-competitive," Yost said.
A Google spokesperson said the company would defend itself
in court.
"Google Search is designed to provide people with the
most relevant and helpful results. ... Ohioans simply don't want the government
to run Google like a gas or electric company. This lawsuit has no basis in fact
or law," the spokesperson's statement said.
The lawsuit seeks no monetary damages but asks the court to
require Google to refrain from prioritizing its own products. It alleges that
nearly two-thirds of Google searches in 2020 were done without leaving Google's
platform.
"It often features Google products and services in
attractive formats at the top of the Results page above organic search results.
Additionally, Google often presents Google products in enhanced ways in the
search results that are designed to capture more clicks," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit was filed in the common pleas court, Delaware
County, in Ohio. It is one of several filed by the federal government and state
attorneys general against big tech platforms Google and Facebook.