COLUMBUS – Ohio is the first state in the country to bring a lawsuit asking a court to declare Google a public utility and to regulate it as one.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost filed the lawsuit in the latest twist on the escalating legal efforts to rein in the company that runs the internet’s dominant search engine.
Yost is alleging Google has been abusing its power in a way that is discriminatory and anti-competitive to Ohio residents.
“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive. When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access,” Yost said.
Google attacked the lawsuit Tuesday as a misguided attempt to force changes that would diminish the quality of its search results.
In the lawsuit, filed in Delaware County, Yost does not seek money damages, but calls for a legal declaration that Google is a common carrier (or public utility) subject to proper government regulation.
The suit claims that Google has a duty to offer sources or competitors rights equal to its own, meaning it should not prioritize the placement of its own products, services and websites on search results pages. Those equal rights should extend to advertisements, enhancements, knowledge boxes, integrated specialized searches, direct answers and other features.
As an example, Yost described how a search for an airline flight might return results that steer the person to Google Flights without displaying offers from competitors such as Orbitz and Travelocity.
Yost also joined a multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Google filed last December.