New lawsuit documents allege that Sundar Pichai, chief of Google’s parent Alphabet, signed off on a deal with Facebook that is central to an anti-trust case. Top bosses of Google and Facebook were directly involved in approving an allegedly illegal 2018 deal to cement their dominance of the online advertising market, US court documents revealed Friday. The records, part of an anti-trust lawsuit by a coalition of US states targeting Google, make serious allegations against Big Tech giants long accused of holding monopolies. According to the states’ accusations, the online search colossus sought to oust competition by manipulating ad auctions—the ultra-sophisticated system that determines which ads appear on web pages based on the anonymized profiles of internet users. The legal documents filed in a New York court clearly refer to Sundar Pichai, chief of Google’s parent firm Alphabet, as well as Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Mark Zuckerberg—even if their names were redacted. “Google CEO Sundar Pichai also personally signed off on the terms of the deal,” the suit said. The documents note that the economic terms were emailed to Facebook’s CEO and he was advised: “‘We’re nearly ready to sign and need your approval to move forward.'” Google…
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Suit says Google, Facebook chiefs OK'd market pact – Tech Xplore
