State probes into Big Tech are a ‘backstop’ in case the feds back down, say antitrust experts

Nearly all the country’s attorneys general are now putting their weight behind antitrust investigations of Big Tech. And while the state-led probes will turn up the heat on companies like Google and Facebook, they will also likely add pressure to federal regulators who have launched their own investigations into the industry, according to antitrust experts.

A bipartisan group of attorneys general from 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico announced Monday they would pool resources to probe Google’s advertising business. The announcement follows that of a smaller, overlapping group of attorneys general led by New York’s Letitia James that is investigating Facebook’s business practices.

The group investigating Google, which included all the states except for California and Alabama, stressed their independence from federal regulators, who are already asking their own questions of the company, Google previously disclosed.