Google disputes Texas' suit claiming unfair advertising sales practices

[January 18, 2021]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google said on Sunday that antitrust claims in a Texas lawsuit were "misleading," responding in a blog post as state attorneys general plan suits against the Alphabet Inc unit.

A Google sign is pictured on a Google building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., October 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

In December, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a complaint about Google's advertising technology business, in one of several suits alleging that Google abused its dominance of the internet search business or otherwise broke antitrust law.

In Sunday's blog post, Google's Economic Policy Director Adam Cohen said the company wanted to set the record straight and dispel myths about its open bidding process for advertising.

"AG Paxton tries to paint Google’s involvement in this industry as nefarious," Cohen wrote. "The opposite is true. Unlike some B2B companies in this space, a consumer internet company like Google has an incentive to maintain a positive user experience and a sustainable internet that works for all—consumers, advertisers and publishers."

The post argues that Google's rates are fair, the marketplace is open and does not favor a single partner, such as Facebook.

(Reporting By Jessica Resnick-Ault, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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