State Attorneys General Are in a Fight with Google to Ensure Fair Business Practices – Patrick Lynch

Patrick Lynch, former president of the National Association of Attorneys General, made the case in a Saturday Cleveland Plain Dealer guest column that “a bipartisan consensus is growing among top state law enforcement officials that Google’s business and privacy practices merit closer scrutiny out of concern for consumers’ welfare.”

Lynch wrote that instead of responding to these concerns, “Google is making an insidious argument in an Ohio appeals court case that state attorneys general lack the authority to enforce the very consumer protection laws they were sworn to uphold.”

He also commented on the important role of state attorneys general in protecting consumers:

“We live in a free country with free markets that give Google wide latitude to run its business empire. But that freedom is not unfettered; it is bound by numerous laws, including state competition and consumer protection laws.”

Lynch, a consultant to FairSearch, is the former Attorney General of Rhode Island. Reports indicate that today, Rhode Island will announce how much local law enforcement agencies will receive from Google’s $500 million forfeiture to the federal government last August for enabling “the unlawful importation of controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs” into the U.S. Another case which proves that ‘trust us’ is no longer sufficient from Google in investigations of its business practices.

As Lynch wrote, “No one in our country is above the law — not even a company as successful as Google.”