State attorneys general announced in a lawsuit earlier this month that a 2018 business agreement between two digital advertising giants, Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc’s Google, was an illegal price fixing deal. Lawmakers are calling for additional investigation. The companies say it was above board.The Wall Street Journal viewed part of a recent unworked draft version of the lawsuit, which refines on allegations in the reworked complaint filed in Texas federal district court.Ten Republican attorneys general, led by Texas’ Ken Paxton, say Google gave Facebook uncommon terms and access to its ad server, an omnipresent tool for issuing advertising space across the web. This and other conduct by Google, they allege in the last lawsuit, hurts competition and deprives “advertisers, publishers and consumers of refined quality, better transparency, boosted output and/or reduced prices.
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