Facebook and Google have Agreed to the Alliance that Triggered an Antitrust Investigation

According to US authorities in a lawsuit accessed by The Wall Street Journal, Facebook and Google agreed to cooperate and assist each other in case of being investigated for their pact on digital advertising.

The text is a full version of the complaint filed last week by a group of states against Google, including numerous confidential passages with details about the accusations.

The lawsuit alleges that the two internet giants struck a deal in September 2018. Facebook promised not to compete with Google’s advertising tools in exchange for favorable treatment to use them.

According to the part of the text that the WSJ had access to, the two companies knew that their pact could trigger an antitrust investigation and discussed how to deal with it.

Thus, Facebook and Google agreed to cooperate and assist each other in responding to any antitrust action. As well as informing the other party of any communication from the government about their agreement, the WSJ said on Tuesday.

A Google spokesperson assured the newspaper that these types of agreements on possible antitrust investigations are prevalent. Moreover, they insisted that the states’ lawsuit does not reflect reality. The agreement with Facebook was not a secret and did not contain anything that was not available for other customers.

The public version of the lawsuit did not include any details about the agreement between the two companies. Still, according to the text seen by the WSJ, from the fourth year of the pact, Facebook must pay a minimum of 500 million dollars in advertising auctions of Google.

An internal Facebook document cited in the lawsuit describes the deal as relatively cheap compared to direct competition.

Apple and Amazon also face antitrust investigations in the US

The two internet giants are in the US authorities’ crosshairs. They have filed several lawsuits against them for alleged anti-competitive practices in recent weeks.

Other big tech companies like Apple and Amazon also face antitrust investigations in the United States. Both are classic anti-monopoly measures. By the standards of tech antitrust, the problem here is relatively simple: Amazon is running too many businesses at once. 

Apple exerts monopoly power in the mobile app store market. It controls access to more than 100 million iPhones and iPads in the US. In the absence of competition, its monopoly over software distribution to iOS devices has harmed competitors and competition. It decreased quality and innovation among app developers, increased prices, and reduced choices for consumers.