Google to pay $8 million settlement for 'lying to Texans', says State AG

Expand Manuel Augusto Moreno | Moment

Google has agreed to an $8 million settlement with Texas over misleading ads promoting its Pixel 4 smartphone, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced today.

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At issue was Google's reliability as an advertiser after the tech giant "hired radio DJs to record and broadcast detailed testimonials about their personal experiences with the Pixel 4" but then "decline to provide DJs with a phone to use,” Paxton said.

The tech giant had already settled claims from the Federal Trade Commission and six other states for about $9 million, and Paxton seemed proud that his "settlement recovers $8 million for the state of Texas alone" .

Google did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment, but a company spokesperson previously told TechCrunch that "we take compliance with advertising laws seriously and have implemented has processes in place designed to ensure that we comply with applicable regulations and industry standards". [Update: Google spokesperson José Castañeda repeated Google's previous statement to Ars: "We are excited to fix this issue."]

Paxton said that "if Google is going to advertise in Texas, its statements had better be true". He decided to take action to hold Google "accountable for lying to Texans for financial gain," saying big business shouldn't expect "special treatment under the law."

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"Texas will do everything in its power to protect our citizens and our state's economy from false and misleading corporate advertising," Paxton said.

This isn't the first time Texas has come up against Google. In 2020, Texas joined other states in filing a lawsuit against Google for allegedly "unlawfully maintaining monopolies in Internet search and advertising services" in 2020. This lawsuit is ongoing, with Google filing this week a memo asking the court to dismiss the states request. to review certain Google employees' communications with its attorneys.

Most recently, in 2022, Texas sued Google, "alleging that the tech giant unlawfully captured and used the biometric data of millions of Texans without properly obtaining their informed consent to do so," according to a statement from press. At that time, Paxton compared Google to a "modern Eye of Sauron".