Google settles with US, agrees to $8B overhaul to its ad business

Google has settled several antitrust lawsuits with US states, in the process committing to make major changes to how it approaches online advertising.<br><br>The agreements announced Thursday cover lawsuits filed by attorneys general in Texas, Kentucky and Connecticut. Google is expected to pay out around $1.7 billion in total, according to the Texas agreement. The company also plans to spin off parts of its business and sell its ad exchange platform.<br><br>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led one successful action and the broader group of states in a second lawsuit, said that Google will now face “severe consequences” should it persist in the actions that led the states to sue the company.<br><br>The second lawsuit focused on Google’s conduct related to Google Ads. In essence, the Texas-led investigation led the states to conclude that Google used the things it learned about businesses, such as their pricing, to bid on their behalf in ad auctions.<br><br>Google didn’t immediately comment on the agreements. But in a statement, a spokesperson for the tech giant maintained that this latest agreement is simply another example of the many millions of dollars that it has already agreed to pay as part of multiple antitrust investigations.<br><br>The search giant agreed to pay $13 billion to settle a separate antitrust lawsuit filed by California, New York and other states in October. The states claimed that Google and Facebook-parent Meta harmed competition by brokering ad deals behind closed doors, and that the two companies worked together to gain an unfair share of the market.<br><br>Google, Amazon and Microsoft have agreed to pay a combined $18 billion to settle two separate antitrust cases in the United Kingdom, involving advertising technology, after a two-year probe.<br><br>Google has been at the center of several antitrust and competition investigations globally. It has agreed to pay billions of dollars to settle lawsuits, while facing more investigations and similar probes.