ANTI-TRUST SUIT

States Claim Zuckerberg Approved Secret, Potentially Illegal Deal With Google

Unsealed allegations claim that Facebook and Google improperly agreed to give the social network an advantage in ad auctions.

Unsealed allegations in a lawsuit filed by 15 states and Puerto Rico claim that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai agreed to a “secret deal” that may have illegally given Facebook “a leg up in the search giant’s online advertising auctions,” according to a new report from Politico. Outlines of the alleged agreement were included in earlier versions of the anti-trust suit, which was first filed in 2020, though it has since been updated and partially unredacted. Spokespeople for the two companies denied that the agreement was improper, while a Google representative claimed that Pichai had not personally signed off on it. Google will try to have the case dismissed next week.