Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is the subject of a growing antitrust suit filed by the attorneys general of 37 states and Washington DC. The lawsuit alleges that Google's Play Store is anti-competitive and monopolistic.
The bipartisan antitrust suit began two years prior with a probe investigating the Google Play Store. While the lawsuit proper has been ready to proceed since last year, the attorneys general opted to wait until separate lawsuits were filed targeting other aspects of Google's operation, including its lucrative advertising platform.
While the initial group of states has been allied since the initial probe, the group gained the addition of West Virginia, with the state announcing on Sunday that it would be joining the suit.
The move isn't surprising, given the rising anti-tech sentiment among policymakers and consumers worldwide. The move by the grouped attorneys general also follows a more increasingly prominent precedent set by Australia and the European Union.
In April, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) ruled that Google and Apple's (NASDAQ: APPL) app stores were anti-competitive because of the firms' control over the distribution platform and still competing with third-party developers with pre-installed apps.
"They have the ability and incentive to promote their own apps over others, and they control the terms that their competitors must comply with to gain access to their store," the ACCC chair said at the time.
Apple is the subject of a probe being conducted by the EU to discern if its app store is anticompetitive. At the same time, the firm faces protests and separate suits from app developers over its practices.
Alphabet stock took a hit on the announcement of the investigation last week, losing 1.8% in an aftermarket drop on Wednesday. Alphabet seems to already recovered, with its share price just a few cents below Wednesday's closing price at the time of writing.