Josh Hawley Urges FTC to Release Full 2012 Google Antitrust Report

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) sent a letter on Tuesday to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging its five commissioners to release the agency’s 2012 report that detailed Google’s anticompetitive policies.

Sen. Hawley sent a letter to the agency’s five commissioners to release the full 2012 report detailing Google’s anticompetitive behavior. Half of the 2012 report released was disclosed in 2015 and detailed that the search engine giant manipulated its search results to bias its own services over Google’s competitors.

“I believe the remaining pages likely contain information critical to the public interest because they may reveal that Google has long been deceiving consumers,” Hawley wrote in his letter to the commissioners.

Sen. Hawley’s letter to the FTC arises as 50 attorneys general have announced an antitrust investigation into Google’s manipulation of the online search and digital advertising markets.

The Missouri senator noted that two years ago, the European Union (EU) fined Google $2.7 billion for manipulating its search results. Hawley contended that Google was “in fact rigging specific search results to favor the interests of Google’s executives.”

Sen. Hawley noted that the 2012 FTC report noted that, citing internet Google documents, that they manipulated their search engine “to bias ourselves.”

He added “Google was misleading consumers about how its algorithm worked” and that “Google systematically deceived consumers,” which provides “real harm to consumers and to innovation in the online search and advertising markets.”

Sen. Hawley noted other anticompetitive behavior the search engine engaged in, including:

For example, the report states on pages 28 and 116 that, even as Google told the public it was delivering the most relevant results, it was in fact blacklisting results that it did not like. Google “enter[ed] into exclusive and highly restrictive agreements with web publishers that prevent publishers from displaying competing search results,” and Google “adopted a strategy of demoting, or refusing to display, links to certain vertical websites in highly commercial categories.”
The report provides evidence that Google was deceiving consumers before 2012, and the recent fines levied against Google suggest that Google never stopped. The public has a strong interest in knowing the extent of Google’s pattern of deception so that they can make informed decisions about whether to continue using Google or instead switch to a different service that does not rely on deception.

“I ask you to release the remainder of the report because the public has an interest in knowing how one of the largest, most powerful companies in the world has engaged in deception,” Sen. Hawley concluded in his letter to the FTC.

Read Sen. Hawley’s letter to the FTC here.