Google, Facebook Face Multiple Risks From New State Probes

Google and Facebook are likely to find it much harder to escape antitrust penalties now that more than two dozen state attorneys general have decided to launch their own probes of the tech giants.

The states’ involvement ups the ante for Google parent Alphabet and Facebook in multiple ways. The companies, already under investigation for possible antitrust violations by federal regulators, now have to engage with authorities in numerous jurisdictions at once. One risk is that the states decide at some point that federal regulators aren’t moving fast enough, or being tough enough, and opt to file their own lawsuits in federal court, where antitrust cases are typically fought.