Texas Presses Google Probe

Wall Street Journal: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a civil suit against Google, claiming that the company has withheld documents that provide important evidence related to the state’s antitrust investigation of the search giant. Google said the documents were covered by attorney-client privilege, but Abbott charged “Google has not met its burden of demonstrating that the privilege is applicable to many” of the 14,500 documents that it withheld.

Google responded with a statement: “We have shared hundreds of thousands of documents with the Texas Attorney General, and we are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.”

Texas is examining whether “Google has used its monopoly power” unfairly against “vertical search” websites. U.S. and E.U. authorities have launched similar investigations.