Google and Facebook clearly understand the concept of working together to fight one common adversary as rumors say both companies have combined their efforts to defend against antitrust lawsuits filed against them.
In recent weeks, several state and federal government agencies filed various antitrust lawsuits against big tech firms, including Google, Facebook, and Apple. Whether or not the companies saw the government has strong legal grounds for such lawsuits, they must have come to the realization that there is strength in numbers, which is perhaps why Google and Facebook allegedly unite and teamed up to fight these antitrust lawsuits.
In one of the lawsuits filed by the government, it alleged that Google and Facebook are making plans to unite and work together to fight any investigations that seek to shed light on their alleged online advertising relationship. Rumors indicate the two tech giants agreed to help each other in fending off antitrust lawsuits filed against them. The antitrust lawsuit in question is the one filed by attorneys general in several states against Google, charging the company of "engaging in market collusion to rig auctions" in online advertising. While this particular lawsuit is heavily redacted, there is an available draft version showing information that Google received help from Facebook on the issue.
A report filed by The Wall Street Journal revealed seeing the draft version which narrates about a deal between Facebook and Google to "cooperate and assist one another" in case either company becomes subject of an investigation as regards their online advertising businesses. For the government, this is proof that Google and Facebook are planning to unite and work together in fighting antitrust lawsuits filed against the companies. The report also showed that the redacted sections point to several internal company documents that detailed and discussed the attorneys' findings.
Google, Facebook reportedly agreed to team up against potential antitrust action @CNBC - Collusion!! If ATT and Sprint got together to fight against government investigators, the uproar would be defining! https://t.co/2t04rxr58Z — Jonathan Dogood (@JonathanDogood) December 22, 2020
The antitrust lawsuit that Google and Facebook allegedly sought to fight together as a team alleges that in September of 2018, the two tech giants entered into a deal where the social media monolith promises not to compete against Google in online advertising. In turn, the search engine giant promises to give Facebook special treatment whenever it uses Google's tools. The agreement is allegedly called 'Jedi Blue,' a codename lifted off a 'Star Wars' movie. This is perhaps why Google and Facebook decided to unite and work together to defend themselves better against the antitrust lawsuit filed by the government.
The draft version of the antitrust lawsuit also revealed that Google and Facebook are very much aware of the likelihood of the government launching antitrust investigations because of the questionable agreement. This is why they included a provision in their agreement that should the government launch an investigation that would culminate in the filing of an antitrust lawsuit against them, Google and Facebook would unite and work together to defend themselves.
