Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley today announced the issuing of an investigative subpoena into Google LLC’s business practices regarding a possible violation of the state’s antitrust laws.

The investigation will attempt to ascertain if Google violated the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act, the state’s principal consumer-protection statute, and Missouri’s antitrust laws. Google’s alleged transgressions relate to the collection of information on users and how it used and disclosed.

The investigation alleges that Google also dredges information from its competitors’ websites, while manipulating search results to preference Google’s own websites and demoting the sites of its competitors. The company is currently fighting a landmark case in Europe over such anticompetitive behavior, something Hawley emphasized when talking about his own case.

Review site Yelp Inc. earlier this year turned to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for help, accusing Google of scraping images from Yelp and using them in its own search results.

Quite a change in the political environment when a Republican running for US Senate makes protecting consumers and competitors from Google’s anti-trust abuse a campaign issue. Drip, drip…. https://t.co/YK0YmVty7A

— Vince Sollitto (@VinceSollitto) November 13, 2017

“There is strong reason to believe that Google has not been acting with the best interest of Missourians in mind,” Hawley, who is running for Democratic U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s seat in 2018, said in a press release. “My Office will not stand by and let private consumer information be jeopardized by industry giants, especially to pad their profits.”

At a time when tech monopolies are coming into question, Hawley said it’s his duty to protect people from a company that has so much information. His investigation will also scrutinize the estimated 70 percent of all card transaction data that Google collects. “I will not let Missouri consumers and businesses be exploited by industry giants,” Hawley said.

According to the Kansas City Star, Google has not yet received the subpoena. Patrick Lenihan, a spokesperson for Google, said in an email that Google has “strong privacy protections in place for our users and continue(s) to operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment.”

For a long time critics have said that the American government has been soft on tech giants and their increasing monopolies, at least compared with Europe. One such critic was fired from a Google-funded think tank in August when he applauded the European Commission’s $2.9 billion fine handed to Google for breaching antitrust rules.

Image: Pixabay