The Department of Justice reportedly has asked privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo for documents and information amid its antitrust probe into Google.
Axios reports that the Department of Justice requested evidence or allegations that show anti-competitive behavior among people in that market, including details on DuckDuckGo’s revenue and expenses, and details of business deals.
DuckDuckGo is a privacy-oriented search engine that also offers an app and browser extension to prevent tracking online.
The Justice Department announced in late July that it was going to review “how market-leading online platforms have achieved market power and are engaging in practices that have reduced competition, stifled innovation, or otherwise harmed consumers.”
“While private search is only one of the privacy protection tools we offer, the subpoena concerns our experience competing in the search market, including search syndication contracts and default search deals,” DuckDuckGo told the news outlet in a statement. “We intend to cooperate with this inquiry as best we can because robust scrutiny promotes healthy competition, greater choice for users, and stronger data privacy practices.”
The request comes as nearly every state joined in a separate antitrust investigation into Google.
The probe, which includes both Republican and Democratic attorneys general, will look into Google’s “control of online advertising markets and search traffic that may have led to anticompetitive behavior that harms consumers,” according to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, which is leading the investigation.
You can read all of the Axios report here.
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