U.S. Court Of Appeals Dismisses Google’s Federal Lawsuit Against A.G. Jim Hood

JACKSON, Miss.- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed Google’s federal lawsuit Friday against Attorney General Jim Hood, filed after the Attorney General issued an administrative subpoena to the company seeking information about whether its conduct or policies violated Mississippi state law.

The court also lifted an injunction on Friday that was put in place by a lower court last year that had prevented Attorney General Hood from seeking to enforce the subpoena.

The appeals court turned back an attempt by Google Inc. to use the federal court system to block Attorney General Jim Hood’s investigation of the Internet giant’s business practices.

“The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals clearly saw through Google’s attempt to misuse the federal courts in an effort to obstruct a sovereign state’s investigation into state-law matters,” Attorney General Hood said.

“It should be a concern of every American citizen when a corporation tries such a brazen end-run around state law. I am grateful for the court’s ruling on an issue important to protecting children and families in Mississippi and across the country.”

Google’s 2015 revenues were $74.5 billion, which is higher than the annual GDPs of all but about 65 countries, and some states such as North and South Dakota, Maine and West Virginia.

Also, Fortune 500 ranked Apple and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, first and second in terms of market value in 2015.

Google is ranked as having the world’s third most valuable brand.

The company earns an estimated $115,000 in revenue every minute, converting more than $23,000 of that into profit. It is the world’s most popular search engine.

With that wealth and power comes tremendous responsibility.

Attorney General Hood initially raised concerns about Google’s practices more than three years ago, alleging that it was too simple for consumers to buy counterfeit goods, purchase illegal drugs or view copyrighted materials by using the company’s web platforms.

In October 2014, the Attorney General issued an administrative subpoena to Google, seeking information about Google’s platforms, its advertising, and its efforts to protect consumers against illegal content.

The Attorney General’s Office offered to work with Google regarding what documents the company would provide, how they would be provided and when they would provide them.

But just a short time later, the company filed its lawsuit and sought the injunction.

The appeals court determined that the district judge erred in issuing the injunction due to the lack of proof of irreparable injury, one of the four fundamental elements for issuing an injunction.

The Fifth Circuit’s dismissal of Google’s lawsuit takes place at a time when Google is drawing attention from other state Attorneys General for possibly manipulating search results to the detriment of consumers.

In February, the attorneys general of Utah and the District of Columbia asked the Federal Trade Commission to consider reopening an antitrust investigation of Google.

Those Attorneys General cited the European Union’s recent antitrust charges against the company as a reason to renew an FTC inquiry.

“My investigators have determined that Google has made some progress as a result of our inquiry and cleaned up some of the autocomplete functions and advertising related to drug sales,” Attorney General Hood said.

“We also have concerns about issues involving data mining of children’s information and search results manipulation.”

Attorney General Hood also thanked a bipartisan group of 40 attorneys general from across the country that supported his appeal.

His colleagues filed an amicus curiae brief with the Fifth Circuit that backed Mississippi’s position in the case.

“As I have said many times, there is no federal agency assigned to policing the Internet,” Attorney General Hood said.

“Protecting families from the dangers of the Internet has been the responsibility of attorneys general. I thank my 40 fellow attorneys general in supporting the dismissal of this case.”

The Attorney General’s Office will evaluate how to proceed with the investigation once an order of dismissal is entered by the district court.

“As an attorney general with a duty to protect families, it is of grave concern to me when the top two corporations standing in the world today, Google and Apple, refuse to help American citizens protect their children,” Attorney General Hood said.

“When conspiracy theorists talk about Big Brother, it is no longer the federal government, it is companies such as Google, which have access to more personal information about us than any entity in history has ever assembled.”