An Ohio court ruled that Google may be designated a common carrier subject to state litigation that would likely force the search giant not to prioritize its own products and services in search results.
Tuesday’s decision is the first time a U.S. court has allowed a Big Tech company the possibility of being treated as a common carrier or a business of public accommodation, similar to utility companies or telecommunications companies, which are not allowed to discriminate against consumers who are willing to pay fees.
Republicans in Florida, Texas, and other states have passed controversial anti-censorship laws in the past year on the grounds that media giants are common carriers.
“Still reading the decision, and we still have to prove the case — but this is big, the first one in the country. On to discovery!” Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said after Judge James Schuck ruled in his favor in the Court of Common Pleas in Delaware County, Ohio.
Judge Schuck ruled that Yost and the state of Ohio should have the ability to develop the case and present evidence to support its claim that Google Search is a common carrier.
“Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products — that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said last year when he filed a lawsuit to declare Google a common carrier subject to special government regulations. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”
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The Ohio court also said forcing a company to not censor content and host certain speech is not always illegal or unconstitutional.
“Courts have held that infringing on a private actor’s speech by requiring that actor to host another person’s speech does not always violate the First Amendment,” the court ruling reads. “There are several examples in which private companies involved in mass communications were prohibited from censorship.”
Google, the most visited website in the United States with billions of users worldwide, controls two of the biggest third-party ad companies on the internet. Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, accounts for 43% of the online video advertising market.
Yost said in his lawsuit against Google that the search giant should not prioritize the placement of its own products, services, and websites on search results pages and should give rival services equal rights when it comes to advertisements, integrated specialized searches, direct answers, and other features.
Yost said Ohioans are harmed by Google because “they cannot make the best choices if they don’t get all of the information,” citing how the tech giant steers flight search results to Google Flights instead of offers from competitors such as Orbitz and Travelocity.
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Last year, Yost joined 37 other attorneys general in a federal lawsuit against Google for conduct that violates Section 2 of the Sherman Act, a federal law meant to stop businesses from behaving in a monopolistic way to reduce competition.
