DOJ to file antitrust lawsuit against Google

The Department of Justice will file its antitrust lawsuit against Google Tuesday, which will reportedly focus on the tech giant’s dominance in online search.

Eleven Republican state attorneys general have joined the DOJ as plaintiffs in the case: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, South Carolina and Texas, according to an open docket of the case filed Tuesday morning.

Google’s stock barely moved following news of the suit. Shares were slightly positive as of Tuesday morning.

The lawsuit is the culmination of a more than year-long investigation into the company’s business practices. Google was previously the subject of a U.S. antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission over its search product, but the agency closed that probe in 2013 without charges. A leaked document published by The Wall Street Journal later showed staff had recommended bringing a case on several grounds.

Google has also faced penalties for alleged competition violations abroad, most notably in the European Union. The commission’s competition authority has waged over $9 billion in fines against Google in two separate cases focused on its shopping price comparison product and Android mobile operating system.

But the DOJ lawsuit marks the first time a serious antitrust charge has been brought against Google on the federal level in its home country. Attorneys general from every state besides Alabama have also been probing Google’s practices. California’s attorney general has not confirmed its investigation, but Politico reported last month that the state had opened its own probe separate from the multistate effort led by Texas.